title: Transcriptional regulation by the Sp family proteins.
abstract: Sp1 is one of the very first cellular transcription factors to be identified and cloned in virtue of its binding to a G-rich motif in the SV40 early promoter. Sp1 protein binds to the G-rich sequences present in a variety of cellular and viral promoters and stimulates their transcriptional activity. Recently, a number of other GC and/or GT box-binding factors homologous to Sp1 have been isolated, namely Sp2, Sp3 and Sp4, and the two more distantly related factors, BTEB and BTEB2. The discovery of this family highlights a previously unknown level of complexity of transcriptional regulation of promoters containing GC and/or GT box motifs. This review focuses primarily on strategies aimed to elucidate the transcription properties of the Sp1-like factors and discusses the experimental problems inherent in the attempt to define their respective functions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Molecular and General Biology, University of Naples, Federico II, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lania
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Majello
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Luca
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011487:Protein Conformation; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D016335:Zinc Fingers
chemical_list: D014157:Transcription Factors