Phosphorylation causes a conformational change in the carboxyl-terminal domain of the mouse RNA polymerase II largest subunit

The carboxyl-terminal domain (CTD) of the largest subunit of eukaryotic RNA polymerase II can be phosphorylated by a p34cdc2/CDC28-containing CTD kinase. Phosphorylated serine (or threonine) is located at positions 2 and 5 in the repetitive heptapeptide consensus sequence Tyr1-Ser2-Pro3-Thr4-Ser5-Pro6-Ser7. We show here that phosphorylation of the mouse CTD retards its electrophoretic mobility in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels in a way similar to that observed for the II0 form of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II phosphorylated in vivo. At the maximum level of phosphorylation by CTD kinase in vitro, there are 15-20 phosphates evenly distributed among the 52 heptapeptide repeats that comprise the mouse CTD. Gel filtration chromatography and sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation analyses indicate that phosphorylation induces a dramatic conformational change in the CTD with the phosphorylated form adopting a far more extended structure than the unphosphorylated CTD.