Liver-specific gene expression: A-activator-binding site, a promoter module present in vitellogenin and acute-phase genes

1991 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-101
Author(s):  
M Kaling ◽  
W Kugler ◽  
K Ross ◽  
C Zoidl ◽  
G U Ryffel

The A2 vitellogenin gene of Xenopus laevis, which is expressed liver specifically, contains an A-activator-binding site (AABS) that mediates high in vitro transcriptional activity in rat liver nuclear extracts. Footprint experiments with DNase I and gel retardation assays revealed the binding of several proteins to AABS. Using binding sites of known DNA-binding proteins as competitors in the gel retardation assay, we found that the transcription factor C/EBP and/or one of its "iso-binders" as well as LFB1/HNF1 bound AABS. These interactions were confirmed by in vitro transcription experiments using various oligonucleotides as competitors. However, saturating amounts of C/EBP- and LFB1/HNF1-binding sites as competitors only partially blocked AABS-mediated transcriptional activity. This finding implies that at least a third distinct transcription factor interacts with AABS. In vitro transcription experiments revealed that AABS was present not only in the closely related Xenopus A1 vitellogenin gene but also in acute-phase genes as a liver-specific regulatory element known to confer the interleukin-6 response. Both AABS and the interleukin-6 response element are promoter modules interacting with at least three distinct transcription factors, including C/EBP and LFB1/HNF1.

1991 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Kaling ◽  
W Kugler ◽  
K Ross ◽  
C Zoidl ◽  
G U Ryffel

The A2 vitellogenin gene of Xenopus laevis, which is expressed liver specifically, contains an A-activator-binding site (AABS) that mediates high in vitro transcriptional activity in rat liver nuclear extracts. Footprint experiments with DNase I and gel retardation assays revealed the binding of several proteins to AABS. Using binding sites of known DNA-binding proteins as competitors in the gel retardation assay, we found that the transcription factor C/EBP and/or one of its "iso-binders" as well as LFB1/HNF1 bound AABS. These interactions were confirmed by in vitro transcription experiments using various oligonucleotides as competitors. However, saturating amounts of C/EBP- and LFB1/HNF1-binding sites as competitors only partially blocked AABS-mediated transcriptional activity. This finding implies that at least a third distinct transcription factor interacts with AABS. In vitro transcription experiments revealed that AABS was present not only in the closely related Xenopus A1 vitellogenin gene but also in acute-phase genes as a liver-specific regulatory element known to confer the interleukin-6 response. Both AABS and the interleukin-6 response element are promoter modules interacting with at least three distinct transcription factors, including C/EBP and LFB1/HNF1.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Shahein ◽  
Maria L&oacutepez-Malo ◽  
Ivan Istomin ◽  
Evan J. Olson ◽  
Shiyu Cheng ◽  
...  

Transcription factor binding to a single binding site and its functional consequence in a promoter context are beginning to be relatively well understood. However, binding to clusters of sites has yet to be characterized in depth, and the functional relevance of binding site clusters remains uncertain.We employed a high-throughput biochemical method to characterize transcription factor binding to clusters varying across a range of affinities and configurations. We found that transcription factors can bind concurrently to overlapping sites, challenging the notion of binding exclusivity. Further-more, compared to an individual high-affinity binding site, small clusters with binding sites an order of magnitude lower in affinity give rise to higher mean occupancies at physiologically-relevant transcription factor concentrations in vitro. To assess whether the observed in vitro occupancies translate to transcriptional activation in vivo, we tested low-affinity binding site clusters by inserting them into a synthetic minimal CYC1 and the native PHO5 S. cerevisiae promoter. In the minCYC1 promoter, clusters of low-affinity binding sites can generate transcriptional output comparable to a promoter containing three consensus binding sites. In the PHO5 promoter, replacing the native Pho4 binding sites with clusters of low-affinity binding sites recovered activation of these promoters as well. This systematic characterization demonstrates that clusters of low-affinity binding sites achieve substantial occupancies, and that this occupancy can drive expression in eukaryotic promoters


2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (26) ◽  
pp. 15096-15103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel H. Keller ◽  
Siddhartha G. Jena ◽  
Yuji Yamazaki ◽  
Bomyi Lim

The regulatory specificity of a gene is determined by the structure of its enhancers, which contain multiple transcription factor binding sites. A unique combination of transcription factor binding sites in an enhancer determines the boundary of target gene expression, and their disruption often leads to developmental defects. Despite extensive characterization of binding motifs in an enhancer, it is still unclear how each binding site contributes to overall transcriptional activity. Using live imaging, quantitative analysis, and mathematical modeling, we measured the contribution of individual binding sites in transcriptional regulation. We show that binding site arrangement within the Rho-GTPase componentt48enhancer mediates the expression boundary by mainly regulating the timing of transcriptional activation along the dorsoventral axis ofDrosophilaembryos. By tuning the binding affinity of the Dorsal (Dl) and Zelda (Zld) sites, we show that single site modulations are sufficient to induce significant changes in transcription. Yet, no one site seems to have a dominant role; rather, multiple sites synergistically drive increases in transcriptional activity. Interestingly, Dl and Zld demonstrate distinct roles in transcriptional regulation. Dl site modulations change spatial boundaries oft48, mostly by affecting the timing of activation and bursting frequency rather than transcriptional amplitude or bursting duration. However, modulating the binding site for the pioneer factor Zld affects both the timing of activation and amplitude, suggesting that Zld may potentiate higher Dl recruitment to target DNAs. We propose that such fine-tuning of dynamic gene control via enhancer structure may play an important role in ensuring normal development.


1998 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 3129-3137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ari L. Zaiman ◽  
Angel Nieves ◽  
Jack Lenz

ABSTRACT Transcriptional enhancers within the long terminal repeats of murine leukemia viruses are major determinants of the pathogenic properties of these viruses. Mutations were introduced into the adjacent binding sites for three transcription factors within the enhancer of the T-cell-lymphomagenic virus SL3-3. The sites that were tested were, in 5′-to-3′ order, a binding site for core binding factor (CBF) called core II, a binding site for c-Myb, a site that binds members of the Ets family of factors, and a second CBF binding site called core I. Mutation of each site individually reduced transcriptional activity in T lymphocytes. However, mutation of the Myb and core I binding sites had larger effects than mutation of the Ets or core II site. The relative effects on transcription in T cells paralleled the effects of the same mutations on viral lymphomagenicity, consistent with the idea that the role of these sequences in viral lymphomagenicity is indeed to regulate transcription in T cells. Mutations were also introduced simultaneously into multiple sites in the SL3-3 enhancer. The inhibitory effects of these mutations indicated that the transcription factor in T cells that recognizes the core I element of SL3-3, presumably CBF, needed to synergize with one or more factors bound at the upstream sites to function. This was tested further by generating a multimer construct that contained five tandem core I elements linked to a basal long terminal repeat promoter. This construct was inactive in T cells. However, transcriptional activity was detected with a multimer construct in which the transcription factor binding sites upstream of the core were also present. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that CBF requires heterologous transcription factors bound at nearby sites to function in T cells.


2001 ◽  
Vol 183 (10) ◽  
pp. 3237-3246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salbi Paul ◽  
Xiaohui Zhang ◽  
F. Marion Hulett

ABSTRACT The Bacillus subtilis ResDE two-component system plays a positive role in global regulation of genes involved in aerobic and anaerobic respiration. ctaA is one of the several genes involved in aerobic respiration that requires ResD for in vivo expression. The ctaAB-divergent promoter regulatory region has three ResD binding sites; A1, A2, and A3. The A2 site is essential for in vivo promoter activity, while binding sites A2 and A3 are required for full ctaA promoter activity. In this study, we demonstrate the role of ResD∼P in the activation of thectaA promoter using an in vitro transcription system. The results indicate that the ctaA promoter (binding sites A2 and A3) has two transcriptional start sites. Binding site A2 was sufficient for weak transcription of the upstream promoter (Pv) by EςA, transcription which was enhanced approximately 1.5-fold by ResD and 5-fold by ResD∼P. The downstream promoter (Ps) required both binding sites A2 and A3 and was not transcribed by EςA with or without ResD∼P. RNA polymerase (RNAP) isolated from B. subtilis when cells were at the end of exponential growth (T0) or 3, 4, or 5 h into the stationary phase (T3, T4, or T 5, respectively) was used in in vitro transcription assays. Maximal transcription from Ps required T4 RNAP plus ResD∼P. RNAP isolated from a spo0A or a sigE mutant strain was not capable of Ps transcription. Comparison of the Ps promoter sequence with the SigE binding consensus suggests that thectaA Ps promoter may be a SigE promoter. The collective data from ResD footprinting, in vivo promoter deletion analysis, and in vitro transcription assays suggest that ctaA is transcribed during late exponential to early stationary phases of growth from the Pv promoter, which requires ResD binding site A2, EςA, and ResD∼P, and during later stationary phase from Ps, which requires binding sites A2 and A3, ResD∼P, and EςE or a sigma factor whose transcription is dependent on SigE.


2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 2084-2093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Schaley ◽  
Robert J. O'Connor ◽  
Laura J. Taylor ◽  
Dafna Bar-Sagi ◽  
Patrick Hearing

ABSTRACT The adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) E4-6/7 protein interacts directly with different members of the E2F family and mediates the cooperative and stable binding of E2F to a unique pair of binding sites in the Ad5 E2a promoter region. This induction of E2F DNA binding activity strongly correlates with increased E2a transcription when analyzed using virus infection and transient expression assays. Here we show that while different adenovirus isolates express an E4-6/7 protein that is capable of induction of E2F dimerization and stable DNA binding to the Ad5 E2a promoter region, not all of these viruses carry the inverted E2F binding site targets in their E2a promoter regions. The Ad12 and Ad40 E2a promoter regions bind E2F via a single binding site. However, these promoters bind adenovirus-induced (dimerized) E2F very weakly. The Ad3 E2a promoter region binds E2F very poorly, even via a single binding site. A possible explanation of these results is that the Ad E4-6/7 protein evolved to induce cellular gene expression. Consistent with this notion, we show that infection with different adenovirus isolates induces the binding of E2F to an inverted configuration of binding sites present in the cellular E2F-1 promoter. Transient expression of the E4-6/7 protein alone in uninfected cells is sufficient to induce transactivation of the E2F-1 promoter linked to chloramphenicol acetyltransferase or green fluorescent protein reporter genes. Further, expression of the E4-6/7 protein in the context of adenovirus infection induces E2F-1 protein accumulation. Thus, the induction of E2F binding to the E2F-1 promoter by the E4-6/7 protein observed in vitro correlates with transactivation of E2F-1 promoter activity in vivo. These results suggest that adenovirus has evolved two distinct mechanisms to induce the expression of the E2F-1 gene. The E1A proteins displace repressors of E2F activity (the Rb family members) and thus relieve E2F-1 promoter repression; the E4-6/7 protein complements this function by stably recruiting active E2F to the E2F-1 promoter to transactivate expression.


1989 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 4759-4766
Author(s):  
F Tronche ◽  
A Rollier ◽  
I Bach ◽  
M C Weiss ◽  
M Yaniv

We have characterized in the accompanying paper (P. Herbomel, A. Rollier, F. Tronche, M.-O. Ott, M. Yaniv, and M. C. Weiss, Mol. Cell. Biol. 9:4750-4758, 1989) six different elements in the albumin promoter. One of them, the proximal element (PE), is the binding site for a strictly liver specific factor, APF/HNF1. This binding site contains a bacterial DAM DNA methylase methylation target sequence which, when methylated, decreases the affinity of the protein for this element. When the different albumin promoter constructions were prepared in an Escherichia coli deoxyadenosine methylase-negative strain, the respective contributions of the elements to the overall promoter activity were strikingly different. An intact proximal element plus the TATA box gave almost full transcriptional activity in transient transfection experiments and only in differentiated hepatoma cells of line H4II, whereas the distal elements (distal element III [DEIII], the NF1-binding site DEII, and the E/CBP-binding site DEI) had become essentially dispensable. Mutations affecting the CCAAT box showed only a two- to threefold decrease. When PE was methylated, mutated, or replaced by the homologous element from the alpha-fetoprotein gene, activity in the context of the short promoter (PE plus the TATA box) was abolished. However, activity was restored in the presence of the upstream elements, showing that cooperation with factors binding to the CCAAT box and distal elements favors the functional interaction of the liver-specific APF/HNF1 factor with lower-affinity binding sites.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document