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Biomedical subjects

S Artandi

Publications and source records attributed to S Artandi.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

YY1 and c-Myc associate in vivo in a manner that depends on c-Myc levels.

The c-Myc oncoprotein has previously been shown to associate with transcription regulator YY1 and to inhibit its activity. We show herein that endogenous c-Myc and YY1 associate in vivo and that changes in c-Myc levels, which accompany mitogenic stimulation or differentiation of cultured cells, affect the ratio of free to c-Myc-associated YY1. We have also investigated the mechanism by which association with c-Myc inhibits YY1's ability to regulate transcription. c-Myc does not block binding of YY1 to DNA. However, protein association studies suggest that c-Myc interferes with the ability of YY1 to contact basal transcription proteins TATA-binding protein and TFIIB.

3T3 Cells

Ig/EBP (C/EBP gamma) is a transdominant negative inhibitor of C/EBP family transcriptional activators.

Analysis of cDNA and genomic clones shows that the murine Ig/EBP (C/EBP gamma) gene encodes a small protein with a predicted molecular weight of 16.4 kDa which contains C/EBP family basic and leucine zipper domains but lacks the transcriptional activation domains present in C/EBP (C/EBP alpha) and NF-IL6 (C/EBP beta). In transfection assays Ig/EBP is neither an activator nor a repressor of transcription; however, Ig/EBP inhibits the transcriptional ability of NF-IL6 (C/EBP beta) and C/EBP (C/EBP alpha), acting as a transdominant negative regulator. Thus Ig/EBP resembles LIP, another negative regulator of the C/EBP family, in both structure and transcriptional activity. Of the three known C/EBP family inhibitors, Ig/EBP, LIP and CHOP-10, only Ig/EBP is ubiquitously expressed. Therefore, Ig/EBP may act as a general buffer for C/EBP activators in many cell types.

Animals

Polyamines alter sequence-specific DNA-protein interactions.

The polyamines are abundant biogenic cations implicated in many biological processes. Despite a plethora of evidence on polyamine-induced DNA conformational changes, no thorough study of their effects on the activities of sequence-specific DNA binding proteins has been performed. We describe the in vitro effects of polyamines on the activities of purified, representative DNA-binding proteins, and on complex protein mixtures. Polyamines at physiological concentrations enhance the binding of several proteins to DNA (e.g. USF, TFE3, Ig/EBP, NF-IL6, YY1 and ICP-4, a herpes simplex virus gene regulator), but inhibit others (e.g. Oct-1). The degree of enhancement correlates with cationic charge; divalent putrescine is ineffective whereas tetravalent spermine is more potent than trivalent spermidine. Polyamine effects on USF and ICP-4 result from increased rate of complex formation rather than a decreased rate of dissociation. DNAse I footprint analysis indicated that polyamines do not alter DNA-protein contacts. Polyamines also facilitate formation of complexes involving binding of more than one protein on a DNA fragment.

Base Sequence

Inhibition of transcriptional regulator Yin-Yang-1 by association with c-Myc.

Yin-Yang-1 (YY1) regulates the transcription of many genes, including the oncogenes c-fos and c-myc. Depending on the context, YY1 acts as a transcriptional repressor, a transcriptional activator, or a transcriptional initiator. The yeast two-hybrid system was used to screen a human complementary DNA (cDNA) library for proteins that associate with YY1, and a c-myc cDNA was isolated. Affinity chromatography confirmed that YY1 associates with c-Myc but not with Max. In cotransfections, c-Myc inhibits both the repressor and the activator functions of YY1, which suggests that one way c-Myc acts is by modulating the activity of YY1.

3T3 Cells

mTFE3, an X-linked transcriptional activator containing basic helix-loop-helix and zipper domains, utilizes the zipper to stabilize both DNA binding and multimerization.

Southwestern (DNA-protein) screening of a murine L-cell cDNA library by using a probe for the microE3 site in the immunoglobulin heavy-chain enhancer yielded a clone, mTFE3, which is a member of the subset of basic helix-loop-helix (BHLH) proteins that also contain a leucine zipper (ZIP). Since the individual contribution of these domains is not well understood for proteins which contain them both, mutational analyses were performed to assess the functional roles of the HLH and ZIP regions for DNA binding and multimerization. The HLH region is stringently required for DNA binding but not for multimerization. The ZIP region is not stringently required for binding or multimerization, but stabilizes both multimer formation and DNA binding. A high degree of conservation at both the amino acid and nucleotide levels between the human transcription factor TFE3 and mTFE3 suggests that mTFE3 is the murine homolog of human TFE3. By using fluorescent in situ hybridization, mTFE3 was mapped to mouse chromosome X in band A2, which is just below the centromere. We show that in addition to the immunoglobulin heavy-chain microE3 site, mTFE3 binds to transcriptional elements important for lymphoid-specific, muscle-specific, and ubiquitously expressed genes. Binding of mTFE3 to DNA induces DNA bending.

Amino Acid Sequence

On-line information systems in perspective.

The rationale supporting the desirability of on-line information systems and the arguments underlying their development are discussed. A major argument in favor of on-line retrieval has been the assumption that the opportunity to negotiate search problems through on-line access to the data base has the inherent effect of improved system performance. The extent to which on-line retrieval has fulfilled this and other expectations is considered along with trends relating to the operational characteristics of existing systems.

Ergonomics