title: A genome scale location analysis of human Staf/ZNF143-binding sites suggests a widespread role for human Staf/ZNF143 in mammalian promoters.
abstract: Staf was originally identified as the transcriptional activator of Xenopus tRNA(Sec) and small nuclear (sn) RNA-type genes. Recently, transcription of seven human (h) protein coding genes was reported to be activated by the human ortholog hStaf/ZNF143. Here we have used a combined in silico and biochemical approach to identify 1175 conserved hStaf/ZNF143-binding sites (SBS) distributed in 938 promoters of four mammalian genomes. The SBS shows a significant positional preference and occurs mostly within 200 bp upstream of the transcription start site. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays with 295 of the promoters established that 90% contain bona fide SBS. By extrapolating the values of this mapping to the full sizes of the mammalian genomes, we can infer the existence of at least 2500 SBS distributed in 2000 promoters. This unexpected large number strongly suggests that SBS constitutes one of the most widespread transcription factor-binding sites in mammalian promoters. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the presence of the SBS alone is sufficient to direct expression of a luciferase reporter gene, suggesting that hStaf/ZNF143 can recruit per se the transcription machinery.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, UPR CNRS Architecture et Réactivité de l'ARN, Université Louis Pasteur, 15 Rue René Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Evelyne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Myslinski
authors.forename: Marie-Aline
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Gérard
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krol
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carbon
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites / Q000235:genetics; D019556:COS Cells; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D019295:Computational Biology; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D018899:CpG Islands / Q000235:genetics; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000502:physiology*; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; C114253:ZNF143 protein, human