YEAST DNA-REPAIR PROTEIN RAD23 PROMOTES COMPLEX-FORMATION BETWEEN TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR TFIIH AND DNA-DAMAGE RECOGNITION FACTOR RAD14

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the multisubunit RNA polymerase II general t ranscription factor TFIIH is indispensable for transcription initiatio n and some of its subunits are known to be required for nucleotide exc ision repair (NER) of DNA damaged by ultraviolet light. RAD3, a subuni t of TFIIH, binds UV-damaged DNA in an ATP-dependent manner. It has, h owever, remained unclear how TFIIH is assembled with the other damage recognition component RAD14. Here, we demonstrate a higher order compl ex consisting of TFIIH, RAD14, and another NER protein RAD23, and comp lex formation between TFIIH and RAD14 is facilitated by the RAD23 prot ein.