GM-CSF gene activation in T cells is known to involve the transcription factors nuclear factor-kappa B, AP-1, NFAT, and Sp1. Here we demonstrate that the human GM-CSF promoter and enhancer also encompass binding sites for core-binding factor (CBF). Significantly, the CBF sites are in each case contained within the minimum essential core regions required for inducible activation of transcription...

A specific mutation in TAFII250, the largest subunit of the transcription factor TFIID, disrupts cell growth control in the temperature-sensitive mutant hamster cell line ts13. Transcription from the cyclin A and D1 but not the c-fos and myc promoters is also dramatically reduced in ts13 cells at the nonpermissive temperature. These findings provide an intriguing link between TAF-mediated trans...

Using a collection of expressed sequence tag (EST) data, we re-evaluated the correlation of tissue specificity with genomic structure, phyletic age, evolutionary rate and promoter architecture of human genes. We found that housekeeping genes are less compact and older than tissue-specific genes, and they evolve more slowly in terms of both coding and core promoter sequences. Housekeeping genes ...

To find new liver-specific expression cassettes for long-term expression of therapeutic genes in the context of pDNA, the function and specificity of hepatitis B virus (HBV)' two hepatic enhancers (EnI and EnII), combined with HBV core and X promoters in cultured cells were evaluated. By bioluminescence imaging and hydrodynamic gene transfer technology, the persistence of transgene expression c...

The structure of E. coli core RNA polymerase (RNAP) has been determined to approximately 23 A resolution by three-dimensional reconstruction from electron micrographs of flattened helical crystals. The structure reveals extensive conformational changes when compared with the previously determined E. coli RNAP holoenzyme structure, but resembles the yeast RNAPII structure. While each of these st...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major cause of liver diseases, especially liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the interaction between host and HBV has not been fully elucidated. ZEB2 is a Smad-interacting, multi-zinc finger protein that acts as a transcription factor or repressor for several signaling pathways. This study found that the expression of ZEB2 was decreased...

In yeast, TATA box binding protein associated factors (TAF(II)s) are dispensable for transcription of most genes. Here we use differential display to identify a small subset of yeast genes whose transcription in vivo requires yTAF(II)145. Promoter-mapping studies reveal, unexpectedly, that the region of a gene that renders it yTAF(II)145-dependent is not the upstream activating sequence, which ...

We defined the minimal core promoter sequences responsible for efficient and accurate initiation of cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) subgenomic RNA4. The necessary sequence maps to positions -28 to +15 relative to the initiation cytidylate used to initiate RNA synthesis in vivo. Positions -28 to -5 contain a 9-bp stem and a 6-nucleotide purine-rich loop. Considerable changes in the stem and the loop...

To further understand Mycobacterium tuberculosis pathogenesis, the regulation of potential virulence genes needs to be investigated. The eis gene of M. tuberculosis H37Rv enhances the intracellular survival of Mycobacterium smegmatis, which does not contain eis, within macrophages (J. Wei, J. L. Dahl, J. W. Moulder, E. A. Roberts, P. O'Gaora, D. B. Young, and R. L. Friedman, J. Bacteriol. 182:3...

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, core promoters of class II genes contain a TATA element, either a TATA box (TATA[A/T]A[A/T][A/G]) or TATA-like element (1 or 2 bp mismatched version of the TATA box). The TATA element directs the assembly of the preinitiation complex (PIC) to ensure accurate transcriptional initiation. It has been proposed the PIC is assembled by two distinct pathways in which TBP i...