Description
In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Sen1 is a 252-kDa, nuclear superfamily-1 RNA/DNA helicase that encoded by an essential gene SEN1 (Senataxin). It is an important component of the Nrd1p-Nab3p-Sen1p (NRD1) complex that regulates the transcriptional termination of most non-coding and some coding transcripts at RNA polymerase pause sites. Sen1 specifically interacts with Rnt1p (RNase III), an endoribonuclease, and with Rpb1p (Rpo21p), a subunit of RNA polymerase II, through its N-terminal domain (NTD), which is a critical element of the RNA-processing machinery. Moreover, mutations in the N-terminal tail of SETX, a human ortholog of yeast Senataxin (Sen1) reported in neurological disorders.