A putative transcriptional elongation factor hIws1 is essential for mammalian cell proliferation

Iws1 has been implicated in transcriptional elongation by interaction with RNA polymerase II (RNAP II) and elongation factor Spt6 in budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and association with transcription factor TFIIS in mammalian cells, but its role in controlling cell growth and proliferation remains unknown. Here we report that the human homolog of Iws1, hIws1, physically interacts with protein arginine methyltransferases PRMT5 which methylates elongation factor Spt5 and regulates its interaction with RNA polymerase II. Gene-specific silencing of hIws1 by RNA interference reveals that hIws1 is essential for cell viability. GFP fusion protein expression approaches demonstrate that the hIws1 protein is located in the nucleus, subsequently, two regions harbored within the hIws1 protein are demonstrated to contain nuclear localization signals (NLSs). In addition, mouse homolog of hiws1 is found to express ubiquitously in various tissues.