TBP, Mot1, and NC2 establish a regulatory circuit that controls DPE-dependent versus TATA-dependent transcription (original) (raw)

  1. Jer-Yuan Hsu1,
  2. Tamar Juven-Gershon1,
  3. Michael T. Marr II2,
  4. Kevin J. Wright3,
  5. Robert Tjian3, and
  6. James T. Kadonaga1,4
  7. 1 Section of Molecular Biology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA;
  8. 2 Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454, USA;
  9. 3 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

Abstract

The RNA polymerase II core promoter is a structurally and functionally diverse transcriptional module. RNAi depletion and overexpression experiments revealed a genetic circuit that controls the balance of transcription from two core promoter motifs, the TATA box and the downstream core promoter element (DPE). In this circuit, TBP activates TATA-dependent transcription and represses DPE-dependent transcription, whereas Mot1 and NC2 block TBP function and thus repress TATA-dependent transcription and activate DPE-dependent transcription. This regulatory circuit is likely to be one means by which biological networks can transmit transcriptional signals, such as those from DPE-specific and TATA-specific enhancers, via distinct pathways.

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