title: DNA bending is induced by a transcription factor that interacts with the human c-FOS and alpha-actin promoters.
abstract: Conserved sequence elements in the human cardiac and skeletal alpha-actin promoters that contain the CC(A + T-rich)6GG motif have been shown to regulate transcription of these genes. A similar sequence is found in the serum response element of the human c-FOS gene. In this study, we demonstrate that indistinguishable proteins bind to each of five CC(A + T-rich)6GG elements examined in the human cardiac and skeletal alpha-actin promoters and the c-FOS serum response element. Using electrophoretic techniques, we show that these factors induce a stable bend in the DNA upon binding, and the bend center is shown to coincide with the CC(A + T-rich)6GG element. In addition, the ability to bend DNA is retained by a small proteolytic fragment of the protein, suggesting that the DNA-binding domain of the protein is resistant to proteases and is sufficient to bend DNA.
authors.affiliation: MEDIGEN Project, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA.
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Gustafson
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kedes
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005796:Genes; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; D011519:Proto-Oncogenes; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; D014157:Transcription Factors; D004247:DNA