A eukaryotic transcriptional activator bearing the DNA specificity of a prokaryotic repressor - PubMed (original) (raw)

A eukaryotic transcriptional activator bearing the DNA specificity of a prokaryotic repressor

R Brent et al. Cell. 1985 Dec.

Abstract

We describe a new protein that binds to DNA and activates gene transcription in yeast. This protein, LexA-GAL4, is a hybrid of LexA, an Escherichia coli repressor protein, and GAL4, a Saccharomyces cerevisiae transcriptional activator. The hybrid protein, synthesized in yeast, activates transcription of a gene if and only if a lexA operator is present near the transcription start site. Thus, the DNA binding function of GAL4 can be replaced with that of a prokaryotic repressor without loss of the transcriptional activation function. These results suggest that DNA-bound LexA-GAL4 and DNA-bound GAL4 activate transcription by contacting other proteins.

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Comment in

• Two "what if" experiments.
  Ptashne M. Ptashne M. Cell. 2004 Jan 23;116(2 Suppl):S71-2, 2 p following S76. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(03)01076-6. Cell. 2004. PMID: 15055587 No abstract available.
• Building an artificial regulatory system to understand a natural one.
  Brent R. Brent R. Cell. 2004 Jan 23;116(2 Suppl):S73-4, 1 p following S76. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(04)00050-9. Cell. 2004. PMID: 15055588 No abstract available.

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