BACKGROUND Activin A increases production of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) by inducing transcription of its beta subunit (FSHB). This induction has been studied here in LbetaT2 gonadotropes using transient expression of ovine FSHBLuc (-4741 bp of ovine FSHB promoter plus exon/intron 1 linked to Luc). Several sequences between -169/-58 bp of the ovine FSHB proximal promoter are necessary fo...

Previous work has shown that binding of the TATA box binding protein (TBP) to the TATA box is a rate-limiting step during pre-initiation complex (PIC) formation. Although the transcription of eukaryotic genes normally proceeds in one direction, studies in solution have shown that TBP lacks the information necessary to orient itself on the TATA box. Instead, yeast TBP binds TATA-containing promo...

We have recently shown that ICP4 has a differential requirement for the general transcription factor TFIIA in vitro (S. Zabierowski and N. DeLuca, J. Virol. 78:6162-6170, 2004). TFIIA was dispensable for ICP4 activation of a late promoter (gC) but was required for the efficient activation of an early promoter (tk). An intact INR element was required for proficient ICP4 activation of the late pr...

The TATA-box binding protein (TBP) is required by eukaryotic RNA polymerases to bind to the TATA box, an eight-basepair DNA promoter element, to initiate transcription. Carcinogen adducts that bind to the TATA box can hamper this important process. Benzo[a]pyrene (BP) is a representative chemical carcinogen that can be metabolically converted to highly reactive benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxides (BPD...

Vitronectin in a cell-adhesion molecule whose expression is temporally and spatially regulated in vivo, but whose regulatory mechanism of transcription is unknown. In this study, we characterized the mouse vitronectin gene promoter. Luciferase expression vectors cloned the successive 5'- or 3'-deletions of the 5'-flanking region upstream of the luciferase gene and were transfected into the huma...

The TATA box binding protein (TBP) plays a central and essential role in transcription initiation. At TATA box-containing genes transcribed by RNA polymerase II, TBP binds to the promoter and initiates the assembly of a multiprotein preinitiation complex. Several studies have suggested that binding of TBP to the TATA box is an important regulatory step in transcription initiation in vitro. To d...

Berberine (BBR) is an established natural DNA intercalator with numerous pharmacological functions. However, currently there are neither detailed reports concerning the distribution of this alkaloid in living cells nor reports concerning the relationship between BBR's association with DNA and the function of DNA. Here we report that the distribution of BBR within the nucleus can be observed 30 ...

We have used a combination of fluorescence anisotropy spectroscopy and fluorescence-based native gel electrophoresis methods to examine the effects of the transcription factor IID-specific subunit TAF130p (TAF145p) upon the TATA box DNA binding properties of TATA box-binding protein (TBP). Purified full-length recombinant TAF130p decreases TBP-TATA DNA complex formation at equilibrium by compet...