Nuclear factor ETF specifically stimulates transcription from promoters without a TATA box.
Transcription factor ETF stimulates the expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene which does not have a TATA box in the promoter region. Here, we show that ETF recognizes various GC-rich sequences including stretches of deoxycytidine or deoxyguanosine residues and GC boxes with similar affinities. ETF also binds to TATA boxes but with a lower affinity. ETF stimulated in vitro transcription from several promoters without TATA boxes but had little or no effect on TATA box-containing promoters even though they had strong ETF-binding sites. These inactive ETF-binding sites became functional when placed upstream of the EGFR promoter whose own ETF-binding sites were removed. Furthermore, when a TATA box was introduced into the EGFR promoter, the responsiveness to ETF was abolished. These results indicate that ETF is a specific transcription factor for promoters which do not contain TATA elements.
Kageyama
R
R
Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
Merlino
G T
GT
Pastan
I
I
D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D003850:Deoxyribonuclease I; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000235:genetics*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005796:Genes; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009710:Nucleotide Mapping; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D014157:Transcription Factors; D066246:ErbB Receptors; D003850:Deoxyribonuclease I