%0 Journal Article %T The eEF1¦Ã Subunit Contacts RNA Polymerase II and Binds Vimentin Promoter Region %A Nicoletta Corbi %A Enrico Maria Batassa %A Cinzia Pisani %A Annalisa Onori %A Maria Grazia Di Certo %A Georgios Strimpakos %A Maurizio Fanciulli %A Elisabetta Mattei %A Claudio Passananti %J PLOS ONE %D 2012 %I Public Library of Science (PLoS) %R 10.1371/journal.pone.0014481 %X Here, we show that the eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1 gamma (eEF1¦Ã) physically interacts with the RNA polymerase II (pol II) core subunit 3 (RPB3), both in isolation and in the context of the holo-enzyme. Importantly, eEF1¦Ã has been recently shown to bind Vimentin mRNA. By chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments, we demonstrate, for the first time, that eEF1¦Ã is also physically present on the genomic locus corresponding to the promoter region of human Vimentin gene. The eEF1¦Ã depletion causes the Vimentin protein to be incorrectly compartmentalised and to severely compromise cellular shape and mitochondria localisation. We demonstrate that eEF1¦Ã partially colocalises with the mitochondrial marker Tom20 and that eEF1¦Ã depletion increases mitochondrial superoxide generation as well as the total levels of carbonylated proteins. Finally, we hypothesise that eEF1¦Ã, in addition to its role in translation elongation complex, is involved in regulating Vimentin gene by contacting both pol II and the Vimentin promoter region and then shuttling/nursing the Vimentin mRNA from its gene locus to its appropriate cellular compartment for translation. %U http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014481