title: Can you hear me now? Regulating transcriptional activators by phosphorylation.
abstract: Extracellular signals often modulate the expression of specific genetic programs by triggering the phosphorylation of relevant transcription factors (TFs). Phosphorylation in turn regulates such TFs by altering their cellular localization, DNA binding affinity, or transcriptional activity. Structural approaches have revealed how phosphorylation turns some TFs on or off; but less is known about how phosphorylation regulates other transcription factors in a graded manner that depends on signal intensity. A recent paper by Graves and colleagues reveals how a group of phosphorylation sites in Ets-1 regulates its DNA binding activity. Their studies provide new insight into the importance of multisite phosphorylation for the graded regulation of transcription and highlight the involvement of allosteric mechanisms in this process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390-9038, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Montminy
mesh_terms: D000494:Allosteric Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011485:Protein Binding; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational / Q000502:physiology*; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000502:physiology*; D050784:Proto-Oncogene Protein c-ets-1 / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D012694:Serine / Q000737:chemistry; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: C494042:Ets1 protein, mouse; D050784:Proto-Oncogene Protein c-ets-1; D015534:Trans-Activators; D012694:Serine; D004247:DNA; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases