From carpet bombing to cruise missiles: the 'second-order' mechanisms used by transcription factors to ensure specific DNA binding in vivo.
Transcription factors generally have only modest specificity for their target sites, yet must find them in a sea of non-specific DNA. Some transcription factors are expressed at very high levels, to ensure that, despite losses to non-specific binding, the promoter is still occupied (the carpet-bombing strategy). Others increase their binding specificity by collaborating with other factors in a variety of ways.
Kodadek
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Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at Austin 78712, USA.
D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000502:physiology*
D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; D004247:DNA