A family of immunologically related transcription factors that includes multiple forms of ATF and AP-1. (original) (raw)

  1. T W Hai,
  2. F Liu,
  3. E A Allegretto,
  4. M Karin, and
  5. M R Green
  6. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.

Abstract

ATF is a cellular transcription factor involved in the regulation of multiple adenovirus E1A- and cellular cAMP-inducible promoters. Using DNA affinity chromatography, we have purified ATF and found that a series of polypeptides copurify in a sequence-specific manner. We demonstrate that these polypeptides represent a family of proteins that are related by DNA-binding specificity and by immunological cross-reactivity. This family includes the transcription factor AP-1, whose recognition sequence, GTGAGTCAA, differs from the ATF consensus, GTGACGTCAA, by the absence of a cytosine residue. Our results further indicate that there are multiple forms of both ATF and AP-1. The immunological cross-reactivity and related DNA-binding specificities suggest that ATF and AP-1 contain similar amino acid sequences and may have originated from a common gene.

Footnotes