Scanning the human genome with combinatorial transcription factor libraries - PubMed (original) (raw)

doi: 10.1038/nbt794. Epub 2003 Feb 18.

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Scanning the human genome with combinatorial transcription factor libraries

Pilar Blancafort et al. Nat Biotechnol. 2003 Mar.

Abstract

Despite the critical importance of transcription factors in mediating gene regulation, there exists no general, genome-wide tool that uses transcription factors to induce or silence a target gene or select for a particular phenotype. In the strategy described here, we prepared large combinatorial libraries of artificial transcription factors comprising three or six zinc-finger domains, and selected transcription factor-DNA interactions able to upregulate several genes in human cells. Selected transcription factors either induced the expression of an endothelial-specific differentiation marker, VE-cadherin, in non-endothelial cell lines or, when combined with a repression domain, knocked down expression. Potential binding sites for a number of these transcription factors were mapped along the promoter of CDH5, the gene encoding VE-cadherin. Transcription factor libraries represent a useful approach for studying and modulating gene function in cells and potentially in whole organisms.

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