Biological Activity of Mammalian Transcriptional Repressors
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Gerald Thiel
Abstract
Research on the regulation of transcription in mammals has focused in recent years mainly on the mechanism of transcriptional activation. However, transcriptional repression mediated by repressor proteins is a common regulatory mechanism in mammals and might play an important role in many biological processes. To understand the molecular mechanism of transcriptional repression, the activity of eight mammalian repressors or repressor domains was investigated using a set of model promoters in combination with two different transcriptional detection methods. The repressors studied were: REST, the thyroid hormone receptors α and β, the zinc finger protein NK10 containing a krüppelassociated box (KRAB), repressor domains derived from the proteins Egr-1, Oct2A and Dr1 and the repressor/activator protein YY1. Here we show that the repressor domains of REST, Egr-1, the thyroid hormone receptors α and β and NK10 were transferable to a heterologous DNAbinding domain and repressed transcription from proximal and distal positions. Moreover, these repressor domains also blocked the activity of a strong viral enhancer in a remote position. Thus, these domains are general transcriptional repressor domains. The krüppelassociated box was the most powerful repressor domain tested. In contrast, the repressor domains derived from Oct2A and Dr1 were inactive when fused to a heterologous DNAbinding domain. The repressor domain of YY1 exhibited transcriptional repression activity only in one of the transcriptional assay systems. The recruitment of histone deacetylases to the proximity of the basal transcriptional apparatus was recently discussed as a mechanism for some mammalian transcriptional repressor proteins. Here we show here that histone deacetylase 2, targeted to the reporter gene via DNAprotein interaction, functions as a transcriptional repressor protein regardless of the location of its binding site within the transcription unit.
Copyright © 2001 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
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Articles in the same Issue
- Biological Activity of Mammalian Transcriptional Repressors
- Cloning and Characterisation of Chlorophyll Synthase from Avena sativa
- DNA Damage by 3,6-Dihydropyrazine-2,5-Dipropanoic Acid, the Cyclic Dimerization Product of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid
- Chicken Erythrocyte Pyrimidine 5-Nucleotidase: Purification and Characterization of the Subclass I Enzyme
- Coenzymes Q9 and Q10, Vitamin E and Peroxidation in Rat Synaptic and Non-Synaptic Occipital Cerebral Cortex Mitochondria during Ageing
- Membrane Activity of (Cys48Ser) Lung Surfactant Protein B Increases with Dimerisation
- Participation of Residue F552 in Domain III of the Protective Antigen in the Biological Activity of Anthrax Lethal Toxin
- Purification of Chrysancorin, a Novel Antifungal Protein with Mitogenic Activity from Garland Chrysanthemum Seeds
- Legumain Forms from Plants and Animals Differ in Their Specificity
- Assignment of the Complete Disulphide Bridge Pattern in the Human Recombinant Follitropin β -Chain
- The Small GTPase Ras Is Involved in Growth Factor-Regulated Expression of the α1 Integrin Subunit in PC12 Cells
- The Mouse Gap Junction Gene Connexin29 Is Highly Expressed in Sciatic Nerve and Regulated during Brain Development
- A Selenocysteine-Containing Peroxiredoxin from the Strictly Anaerobic Organism Eubacterium acidaminophilum
- Characterization of C-Terminally Truncated Human Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinases-4 Expressed in Pichia pastoris
