Restrictor synergizes with Symplekin and PNUTS to terminate extragenic transcription

In this study, Russo et al. describe the functional synergy between the adaptor protein Symplekin, the protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) regulatory subunit (PNUTS), and the Restrictor complex in controlling extragenic transcription termination in yeast. Their findings show that Symplekin is competitively recruited by Restrictor- or CPSF-containing transcription termination machineries and has a role in CPSF- and cleavage-independent transcriptional repression of noncoding RNAs and endogenous retroviral elements.Transcription termination pathways mitigate the detrimental consequences of unscheduled promiscuous initiation occurring at hundreds of thousands of genomic cis-regulatory elements. The Restrictor complex, composed of the Pol II-interacting protein WDR82 and the RNA-binding protein ZC3H4, suppresses processive transcription at thousands of extragenic sites in mammalian genomes. Restrictor-driven termination does not involve nascent RNA cleavage, and its interplay with other termination machineries is unclear. Here we show that efficient termination at Restrictor-controlled extragenic transcription units involves the recruitment of the protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) regulatory subunit PNUTS, a negative regulator of the SPT5 elongation factor, and Symplekin, a protein associated with RNA cleavage complexes but also involved in cleavage-independent and phosphatase-dependent termination of noncoding RNAs in yeast. PNUTS and Symplekin act synergistically with, but independently from, Restrictor to dampen processive extragenic transcription. Moreover, the presence of limiting nuclear levels of Symplekin imposes a competition for its recruitment among multiple transcription termination machineries, resulting in mutual regulatory interactions. Hence, by synergizing with Restrictor, Symplekin and PNUTS enable efficient termination of processive, long-range extragenic transcription.