A termination site for Xenopus RNA polymerase I also acts as an element of an adjacent promoter

Abstract

On the Xenopus laevis ribosomal genes, RNA polymerase traverses the entire repeating unit of gene plus spacer and terminates just upstream of the next gene promoter. A conserved 7 bp element located at about -200 is an essential part of this terminator. In this paper we show that, in addition to its termination function, this same sequence motif acts as an upstream element of the adjacent promoter and appears to contribute to the long-term stability of the transcription complex.