Conditional mutants of RPC160, the gene encoding the largest subunit of RNA polymerase C in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

A 18.4-kb fragment of the yeast genome containing the gene of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase C (RPC160) was cloned by hybridization to a previously isolated fragment of that gene. RPC160 maps on chromosome XV, tightly linked but not allelic to the essential gene TSM8740. Temperature sensitive (ts) mutant alleles were constructed by in vitro mutagenesis with NaHSO3 and substituted for the wild-type allele on the chromosome. Four of them were unambiguously identified as rpc160 mutants by failure to complement a fully defective mutation rpc160::URA3. The faithful transcription of a yeast tRNA gene by mutant cell-free extracts is strongly reduced as compared to wild-type. In vivo, the rpc160 mutations specifically affect the synthesis of tRNA in a temperature sensitive way, with comparatively little effect on the synthesis of 5S rRNA and no effect on 5.8S rRNA. An unlinked mutation (pcil-3) suppresses the temperature sensitive phenotype of the rpc160-41 mutation.