Triptolide (1) is a structurally unique diterpene triepoxide isolated from a traditional Chinese medicinal plant with anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive, contraceptive and antitumor activities. Its molecular mechanism of action, however, has remained largely elusive to date. We report that triptolide covalently binds to human XPB/ERCC3, a subunit of the transcription factor TFIIH, and inhibits its DNA-dependent ATPase activity, which leads to the inhibition of RNA Polymerase II mediated transcription and likely nucleotide excision repair. The identification of XPB as the target of triptolide accounts for the majority of the known biological activities of triptolide. These findings also suggest that triptolide can serve as a novel molecular probe for studying transcription and, potentially, as a new type of anticancer agents through inhibition of the ATPase activity of XPB.

DEAD-box proteins are the largest family of nucleic acid helicases and are crucial to RNA metabolism throughout all domains of life1,2. They contain a conserved ‘helicase core’ of two RecA-like domains (domains 1 and 2; D1 and D2, respectively), which uses ATP to catalyze the unwinding of short RNA duplexes by nonprocessive, local strand separation3. This mode of action differs from that of translocating helicases and allows DEAD-box proteins to remodel large RNAs and RNA-protein complexes without globally disrupting RNA structure4. However, the structural basis for this distinctive mode of RNA-unwinding remains unclear. Here, structural, biochemical, and genetic analyses of the yeast DEAD-box protein Mss116p indicate that the helicase core domains have modular functions that enable a novel mechanism for RNA duplex recognition and unwinding. By investigating D1 and D2 individually and together, we find that D1 acts as an ATP-binding domain and D2 functions as an RNA-duplex recognition domain. D2 contains a nucleic acid-binding pocket that is formed by conserved DEAD-box protein sequence motifs and accommodates A-form but not B-form duplexes, providing a basis for RNA substrate specificity. Upon a conformational change in which the two core domains join to form a ‘closed-state’ with an ATPase active site, conserved motifs in D1 promote the unwinding of duplex substrates bound to D2 by excluding one RNA strand and bending the other. Our results provide a comprehensive structural model for how DEAD-box proteins recognize and unwind RNA duplexes. This model explains key features of DEAD-box protein function and affords new perspective on how the evolutionarily related cores of other RNA and DNA helicases diverged to use different mechanisms.

Structured RNAs and RNA-protein complexes (RNPs) fold through complex pathways that are replete with misfolded traps, and many RNAs and RNPs undergo extensive conformational changes during their functional cycles. These folding steps and conformational transitions are frequently promoted by RNA chaperone proteins, notably by superfamily 2 (SF2) RNA helicase proteins. The two largest families of SF2 helicases, DEAD-box and DEAH-box proteins, share evolutionarily conserved helicase cores but unwind RNA helices through distinct mechanisms. Recent work has advanced our understanding of how their distinct mechanisms enable DEAD-box proteins to disrupt RNA base pairs on the surfaces of structured RNAs and RNPs, while some DEAH-box proteins are adept at disrupting base pairs in the interior of RNPs. Proteins from these families use these mechanisms to chaperone folding and promote rearrangements of structured RNAs and RNPs, including the spliceosome, and may use related mechanisms to maintain cellular mRNAs in unfolded or partially unfolded conformations.

RNA polymerase II (Pol II) is a well-characterized DNAdependent RNA polymerase, which has also been reported to have RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) activity. Natural cellular RNA substrates of mammalian Pol II, however, have not been identified and the cellular function of the Pol II RdRP activity is unknown. We found that Pol II can use a non-coding RNA, B2 RNA, as both a substrate and a template for its RdRP activity. Pol II extends B2 RNA by 18 nt on its 3 0 -end in an internally templated reaction. The RNA product resulting from extension of B2 RNA by the Pol II RdRP can be removed from Pol II by a factor present in nuclear extracts. Treatment of cells with a-amanitin or actinomycin D revealed that extension of B2 RNA by Pol II destabilizes the RNA. Our studies provide compelling evidence that mammalian Pol II acts as an RdRP to control the stability of a cellular RNA by extending its 3 0 -end.

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae DEAD-box protein Mss116p is a general RNA chaperone that functions in splicing mitochondrial group I and group II introns. Recent X-ray crystal structures of Mss116p in complex with ATP analogs and single-stranded RNA show that the helicase core induces a bend in the bound RNA, as in other DEAD-box proteins, while a C-terminal extension induces a second bend, resulting in RNA crimping. Here, we illuminate these structures by using high-throughput genetic selections, unigenic evolution, and analyses of in vivo splicing activity to comprehensively identify functionally important regions and permissible amino acid substitutions throughout Mss116p. The functionally important regions include those containing conserved sequence motifs involved in ATP and RNA binding or interdomain interactions, as well as previously unidentified regions, including surface loops that may function in protein-protein interactions. The genetic selections recapitulate major features of the conserved helicase motifs seen in other DEAD-box proteins, but also show surprising variations, including multiple novel variants of motif III (SAT). Patterns of amino acid substitutions indicate that the RNA bend induced by the helicase core depends upon ionic and hydrogen-bonding interactions with the bound RNA; identify a subset of critically interacting residues; and indicate that the bend induced by the C-terminal extension results primarily from a steric block. Finally, we identified two conserved regions, one the previously noted post-II region in the helicase core and the other in the C-terminal extension, which may help displace or sequester the opposite RNA strand during RNA unwinding.