Synthetic promoters are commonly used tools for circuit design or high level protein production. Promoter engineering efforts in yeasts, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia pastoris have mostly been focused on altering upstream regulatory sequences such as transcription factor binding sites. In higher eukaryotes synthetic core promoters, directly needed for transcription initiation by R...

The core promoters for mammalian protein-coding genes often contain a TATA box, an initiator (Inr) element, or both of these control elements. The TFIID complex is essential both for TATA activity and for the activity of a common class of Inr elements characterized by an approximate consensus sequence PyPyA+1NT/APyPy. Although the complete set of proteins required for basal TATA-mediated transc...

The signals that direct the initiation of transcription ultimately converge at the core promoter, which is the gateway to transcription. Here we provide an overview of the RNA polymerase II core promoter in bilateria (bilaterally symmetric animals). The core promoter is diverse in terms of its composition and function yet is also punctilious, as it acts with strict rules and precision. We addit...

The two gvpA promoters P(cA) and P(pA) of Halobacterium salinarum, and the P(mcA) promoter of Haloferax mediterranei were investigated with respect to growth-phase-dependent expression and regulation in Haloferax volcanii transformants using the bgaH reading frame encoding BgaH, an enzyme with beta-galactosidase activity, as reporter. For comparison, the P(fdx) promoter of the ferredoxin gene o...

Transcription of mRNA genes requires that RNA polymerase II (Pol II) and the general transcription factors assemble on promoter DNA to form an organized complex capable of initiating transcription. Biochemical studies have shown that Pol II and TFIID (transcription factor IID) contact overlapping regions of the promoter, leading to the question of how these large factors reconcile their promote...

The mouse dihydrofolate reductase (dhfr) gene possesses a bidirectional promoter that produces functional transcripts in the opposite direction. These opposite strand transcripts encode the Rep-3 gene product, a protein that has homology to DNA mismatch repair enzymes. The core of the bidirectional promoter consists of four consensus binding sites for the transcription factor Sp1. These binding...

Prostacyclin plays a central role in hemostasis, inflammation and nociception. However, the factors regulating expression of the prostacyclin receptor (IP) gene in humans and in other species have not been identified. In this study, we sought to identify the key trans-acting factors and cis-acting elements regulating IP expression in the megakaryoblastic human erythroleukemia (HEL) 92.1.7 and v...

current investigations indicate different in vitro infection patterns for oka and dumas strains. infection of cells in culture with dumas strain produces lower number of infectious particles while the oka strain is highly infectious in vitro. it is postulated that weak expression of the replication genes in dumas strain may be the reason for the attenuated phenotype. the objective of this stud...

Cyclin D1 is an oncogene that regulates progression through the G1 phase of the cell cycle. A temperaturesensitive missense mutation in the transcription factor TAF1/TAFII250 induces the mutant ts13 cells to arrest in late G1 by decreasing transcription of cell cycle regulators, including cyclin D1. Here we provide evidence that TAF1 serves two independent functions, one at the core promoter an...