Purification and Preparation of Antibody to RNA Polymerase II Stimulatory Factors from Ehrlich Ascites Tumor Cells

An improved method was developed for purification of the protein termed S-II that specifically stimulates RNA polymerase II of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells. The specific activity of the final preparation was 400 000 units/mg of protein, which is about 30-fold higher than that of the previous preparation [Sekimizu, K., et al. (1976) Biochemistry 15, 5064]. The final preparation gave a single band on both sodium dodecyl sulfate and nondenaturing gel electrophoresis, and the protein extracted from the band on nondenaturing gel had stimulatory activity. S-II is a basic protein with a molecular weight of 40 500. The fundamental characteristics of S-II determined with the previous preparation were confirmed with completely purified S-II. A specific antibody to S-II was prepared. This antibody inhibited only the stimulatory activity of S-II and did not affect the activity of RNA polymerase II itself. Thus, S-II is probably not a component of the multimeric proteins of RNA polymerase II.