Transcription apparatus of the yeast virus-like elements is closely related to the poxviral transcription apparatus

Abstract

We employed virus-like elements (VLEs) pGKL1,2 from Kluyveromyces lactisas a model to investigate the previously neglected transcriptome of the broader group of yeast cytoplasmic linear dsDNA VLEs. We found that RNA polymerase encoded by the yeast cytoplasmic linear dsDNA plasmids, and also promoters recognized by this polymerase, shows high similarity to the poxvirus RNA polymerase and to the promoters of poxvirus genes.