A general mechanism for transcriptional synergy by eukaryotic activators

ONE of the important regulatory concepts to emerge from studies of eukaryotic gene expression is that RNA polymerase II promo-ters and their upstream activators are composed of functional mod-ules whose synergistic action regulates the transcriptional activity of a nearby gene 1-3 . Biochemical anal...

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Veröffentlicht in:Nature (London) 1995-09, Vol.377 (6546), p.254-257
Hauptverfasser: Chi, Tianhuai, Lieberman, Paul, Ellwood, Katharine, Carey, Michael
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:ONE of the important regulatory concepts to emerge from studies of eukaryotic gene expression is that RNA polymerase II promo-ters and their upstream activators are composed of functional mod-ules whose synergistic action regulates the transcriptional activity of a nearby gene 1-3 . Biochemical analysis of synergy by ZEBRA , a non-acidic activator of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) lytic cycle 4 , showed that the synergistic transcriptional effect of promoter sites and activation modules correlates with assembly of the TFIID: TFIIA (DA) complex in DNase I footprinting and gel shift assays. The activator-dependent DA complex differs from a basal DA complex by its ability to bind TFIIB stably in an interaction regulated by TATA-binding protein-associated factors (TAFs). TFIIB enhances the degree of synergism by increasing complex stability. Similar findings were made with the acidic activator GAL4-VP16. Our data suggest a unifying mechanism for gene t To whom correspondence should be addressed. 254 activation and synergy by acidic and non-acidic activators, and indicate that synergy is manifested at the earliest stage of preinitia-tion complex assembly.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/377254a0