Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1993 Dec;7(12A):2431-45.
doi: 10.1101/gad.7.12a.2431.

NRF-1, an activator involved in nuclear-mitochondrial interactions, utilizes a new DNA-binding domain conserved in a family of developmental regulators

C A Virbasius  1 , J V Virbasius, R C Scarpulla
Affiliations
Free article

NRF-1, an activator involved in nuclear-mitochondrial interactions, utilizes a new DNA-binding domain conserved in a family of developmental regulators

C A Virbasius et al. Genes Dev. 1993 Dec.
Free article

Abstract

Nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF-1) was first discovered as an activator of the cytochrome c gene and was subsequently found to play a broader role in nuclear-mitochondrial interactions. We have now cloned a HeLa cDNA encoding NRF-1 using degenerate oligomers derived from tryptic peptide sequences for PCR amplification. The cDNA-encoded protein was indistinguishable from the authentic HeLa cell factor on denaturing gels, displayed the expected NRF-1 DNA-binding specificity, and made the same guanine nucleotide contacts as HeLa NRF-1 on binding known NRF-1 recognition sites. Antiserum raised against the highly purified recombinant protein recognized the identical DNA-protein complex formed using either a crude nuclear fraction or nearly homogeneous HeLa NRF-1. Recombinant NRF-1 also activated transcription through specific sites from several NRF-1-responsive promoters, confirming both the transcriptional activity and specificity of the cDNA product. Portions of NRF-1 are closely related to sea urchin P3A2 and the erect wing (EWG) protein of Drosophila. Both are recently identified developmental regulatory factors. The region of highest sequence identity with P3A2 and EWG was in the amino-terminal half of the molecule, which was found by deletion mapping to contain the DNA-binding domain, whereas the carboxy-terminal half of NRF-1 was highly divergent from both proteins. The DNA-binding domain in these molecules is unrelated to motifs found commonly in DNA-binding proteins; thus, NRF-1, P3A2, and EWG represent the founding members of a new class of highly conserved sequence-specific regulatory factors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources