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 Nov;13(11):7045-55.
doi: 10.1128/mcb.13.11.7045-7055.1993.

The ZEBRA activation domain: modular organization and mechanism of action

T Chi  1 , M Carey
Affiliations

The ZEBRA activation domain: modular organization and mechanism of action

T Chi et al. Mol Cell Biol. 1993 Nov.

Abstract

An RNA polymerase II activator often contains several regions that contribute to its potency, an organization ostensibly analogous to the modular architecture of promoters and enhancers. The regulatory significance of this parallel organization has not been systematically explored. We considered this problem by examining the activation domain of the Epstein-Barr virus transactivator ZEBRA. We performed our experiments in vitro so that the activator concentrations, stabilities, and affinities for DNA could be monitored. ZEBRA and various amino-terminal deletion derivatives, expressed in and purified from Escherichia coli, were assayed in a HeLa cell nuclear extract for the ability to activate model reporter templates bearing one, three, five, and seven upstream ZEBRA binding sites. Our data show that ZEBRA contains four modules that contribute to its potency in vitro. The modules operate interchangeably with promoter sites to determine the transcriptional response such that the loss of modules can be compensated for by increasing promoter sites. Potassium permanganate footprinting was used to show that transcriptional stimulation is a consequence of the activator's ability to promote preinitiation complex assembly. Kinetic measurements of transcription complex assembly in a reconstituted system indicate that ZEBRA promotes formation of a subcomplex requiring the TFIIA and TFIID fractions, where TFIIA acts as an antirepressor. We propose a model in which the concentration of DNA-bound activation modules in the vicinity of the gene initiates synergistic transcription complex assembly.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Genes Dev. 1993 Feb;7(2):173-9 - PubMed
    1. Science. 1993 Apr 2;260(5104):58-63 - PubMed
    1. Cell. 1989 Jul 14;58(1):1-4 - PubMed
    1. Science. 1989 Jul 28;245(4916):371-8 - PubMed
    1. Cell. 1989 Nov 3;59(3):477-87 - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources