Two of the Five Zinc Fingers in the Zap1 Transcription Factor DNA Binding Domain Dominate Site-Specific DNA Binding†

Biochemistry ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 1053-1061 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. V. Evans-Galea ◽  
E. Blankman ◽  
D. G. Myszka ◽  
A. J. Bird ◽  
D. J. Eide ◽  
...  
1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6858-6865
Author(s):  
M W Russo ◽  
C Matheny ◽  
J Milbrandt

NGFI-A is an immediate-early gene that encodes a transcription factor whose DNA-binding domain is composed of three zinc fingers. To define the domains responsible for its transcriptional activity, a mutational analysis was conducted with an NGFI-A molecule in which the zinc fingers were replaced by the GAL4 DNA-binding domain. In a cotransfection assay, four activation domains were found within NGFI-A. Three of the activation domains are similar to those characterized previously: one contains a large number of acidic residues, another is enriched in proline and glutamine residues, and another has some sequence homology to a domain found in Krox-20. The fourth bears no resemblance to previously described activation domains. NGFI-A also contains an inhibitory domain whose removal resulted in a 15-fold increase in NGFI-A activity. This increase in activity occurred in all mammalian cell types tested but not in Drosophila S2 cells. Competition experiments in which increasing amounts of the inhibitory domain were cotransfected along with NGFI-A demonstrated a dose-dependent increase in NGFI-A activity. A point mutation within the inhibitory domain of the competitor (I293F) abolished this property. When the analogous mutation was introduced into native NGFI-A, a 17-fold increase in activity was observed. The inhibitory effect therefore appears to be the result of an interaction between this domain and a titratable cellular factor which is weakened by this mutation. Downmodulation of transcription factor activity through interaction with a cellular factor has been observed in several other systems, including the regulation of transcription factor E2F by retinoblastoma protein, and in studies of c-Jun.


1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6858-6865 ◽  
Author(s):  
M W Russo ◽  
C Matheny ◽  
J Milbrandt

NGFI-A is an immediate-early gene that encodes a transcription factor whose DNA-binding domain is composed of three zinc fingers. To define the domains responsible for its transcriptional activity, a mutational analysis was conducted with an NGFI-A molecule in which the zinc fingers were replaced by the GAL4 DNA-binding domain. In a cotransfection assay, four activation domains were found within NGFI-A. Three of the activation domains are similar to those characterized previously: one contains a large number of acidic residues, another is enriched in proline and glutamine residues, and another has some sequence homology to a domain found in Krox-20. The fourth bears no resemblance to previously described activation domains. NGFI-A also contains an inhibitory domain whose removal resulted in a 15-fold increase in NGFI-A activity. This increase in activity occurred in all mammalian cell types tested but not in Drosophila S2 cells. Competition experiments in which increasing amounts of the inhibitory domain were cotransfected along with NGFI-A demonstrated a dose-dependent increase in NGFI-A activity. A point mutation within the inhibitory domain of the competitor (I293F) abolished this property. When the analogous mutation was introduced into native NGFI-A, a 17-fold increase in activity was observed. The inhibitory effect therefore appears to be the result of an interaction between this domain and a titratable cellular factor which is weakened by this mutation. Downmodulation of transcription factor activity through interaction with a cellular factor has been observed in several other systems, including the regulation of transcription factor E2F by retinoblastoma protein, and in studies of c-Jun.


2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (23) ◽  
pp. 6283-6293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uschi Lindert ◽  
Mirjam Cramer ◽  
Michael Meuli ◽  
Oleg Georgiev ◽  
Walter Schaffner

ABSTRACT Metal-responsive transcription factor 1 (MTF-1) mediates both basal and heavy metal-induced transcription of metallothionein genes and also regulates other genes involved in the cell stress response and in metal homeostasis. In resting cells, MTF-1 localizes to both the cytoplasm and the nucleus but quantitatively accumulates in the nucleus upon metal load and under other stress conditions. Here we show that within the DNA-binding domain, a region spanning zinc fingers 1 to 3 (amino acids [aa] 137 to 228 in human MTF-1) harbors a nonconventional nuclear localization signal. This protein segment confers constitutive nuclear localization to a cytoplasmic marker protein. The deletion of the three zinc fingers impairs nuclear localization. The export of MTF-1 to the cytoplasm is controlled by a classical nuclear export signal (NES) embedded in the acidic activation domain. We show that this activation domain confers metal inducibility in distinct cell types when fused to a heterologous DNA-binding domain. Furthermore, the cause of a previously described stronger inducibility of human versus mouse MTF-1 could be narrowed down to a 3-aa difference in the NES; “humanizing” mouse MTF-1 at these three positions enhanced its metal inducibility to the level of human MTF-1.


Biochemistry ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 43 (51) ◽  
pp. 16027-16035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinichiro Oka ◽  
Yasuhisa Shiraishi ◽  
Takuya Yoshida ◽  
Tadayasu Ohkubo ◽  
Yukio Sugiura ◽  
...  

1996 ◽  
Vol 236 (3) ◽  
pp. 911-921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurgen Schultheiss ◽  
Olaf Kunert ◽  
Uwe Gase ◽  
Klaus-Dieter Scharf ◽  
Lutz Nover ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jungeui Hong ◽  
Nathan Brandt ◽  
Ally Yang ◽  
Tim Hughes ◽  
David Gresham

Understanding the molecular basis of gene expression evolution is a central problem in evolutionary biology. However, connecting changes in gene expression to increased fitness, and identifying the functional basis of those changes, remains challenging. To study adaptive evolution of gene expression in real time, we performed long term experimental evolution (LTEE) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast) in ammonium-limited chemostats. Following several hundred generations of continuous selection we found significant divergence of nitrogen-responsive gene expression in lineages with increased fitness. In multiple independent lineages we found repeated selection for non-synonymous mutations in the zinc finger DNA binding domain of the activating transcription factor (TF), GAT1, that operates within incoherent feedforward loops to control expression of the nitrogen catabolite repression (NCR) regulon. Missense mutations in the DNA binding domain of GAT1 reduce its binding affinity for the GATAA consensus sequence in a promoter-specific manner, resulting in increased expression of ammonium permease genes via both direct and indirect effects, thereby conferring increased fitness. We find that altered transcriptional output of the NCR regulon results in antagonistic pleiotropy in alternate environments and that the DNA binding domain of GAT1 is subject to purifying selection in natural populations. Our study shows that adaptive evolution of gene expression can entail tuning expression output by quantitative changes in TF binding affinities while maintaining the overall topology of a gene regulatory network.


2001 ◽  
Vol 307 (5) ◽  
pp. 1395-1410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Fieber ◽  
Martin L. Schneider ◽  
Theresia Matt ◽  
Bernhard Kräutler ◽  
Robert Konrat ◽  
...  

Development ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 127 (8) ◽  
pp. 1593-1605 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.L. Park ◽  
C. Bai ◽  
K.A. Platt ◽  
M.P. Matise ◽  
A. Beeghly ◽  
...  

The secreted factor Sonic hedgehog (SHH) is both required for and sufficient to induce multiple developmental processes, including ventralization of the CNS, branching morphogenesis of the lungs and anteroposterior patterning of the limbs. Based on analogy to the Drosophila Hh pathway, the multiple GLI transcription factors in vertebrates are likely to both transduce SHH signaling and repress Shh transcription. In order to discriminate between overlapping versus unique requirements for the three Gli genes in mice, we have produced a Gli1 mutant and analyzed the phenotypes of Gli1/Gli2 and Gli1/3 double mutants. Gli3(xt) mutants have polydactyly and dorsal CNS defects associated with ectopic Shh expression, indicating GLI3 plays a role in repressing Shh. In contrast, Gli2 mutants have five digits, but lack a floorplate, indicating that it is required to transduce SHH signaling in some tissues. Remarkably, mice homozygous for a Gli1(zfd)mutation that deletes the exons encoding the DNA-binding domain are viable and appear normal. Transgenic mice expressing a GLI1 protein lacking the zinc fingers can not induce SHH targets in the dorsal brain, indicating that the Gli1(zfd)allele contains a hypomorphic or null mutation. Interestingly, Gli1(zfd/zfd);Gli2(zfd/+), but not Gli1(zfd/zfd);Gli3(zfd/+) double mutants have a severe phenotype; most Gli1(zfd/zfd);Gli2(zfd/+) mice die soon after birth and all have multiple defects including a variable loss of ventral spinal cord cells and smaller lungs that are similar to, but less extreme than, Gli2(zfd/zfd) mutants. Gli1/Gli2 double homozygous mutants have more extreme CNS and lung defects than Gli1(zfd/zfd);Gli2(zfd/+) mutants, however, in contrast to Shh mutants, ventrolateral neurons develop in the CNS and the limbs have 5 digits with an extra postaxial nubbin. These studies demonstrate that the zinc-finger DNA-binding domain of GLI1 protein is not required for SHH signaling in mouse. Furthermore, Gli1 and Gli2, but not Gli1 and Gli3, have extensive overlapping functions that are likely downstream of SHH signaling.


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