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. 1996 Jan;16(1):390–397. doi: 10.1128/mcb.16.1.390

Activation of transcription by PU.1 requires both acidic and glutamine domains.

M J Klemsz 1, R A Maki 1
PMCID: PMC231014  PMID: 8524320

Abstract

The B-lymphocyte- and macrophage-specific transcription factor PU.1 is a member of the ets family of proteins. To understand how PU.1 functions as a transcription factor, we initiated a series of experiments to define its activation domain. Using deletion analysis, we showed that the activation domain of PU.1 is located in the amino-terminal half of the protein. Within this region, we identified three acidic subdomains and one glutamine-rich subdomain. The deletion of any of these subdomains resulted in a significant loss in the ability of PU.1 to transactivate in cotransfection studies. Amino acid substitution analysis showed that the activation of transcription by PU.1 requires acidic residues between amino acids 7 and 74 and a group of glutamine residues between amino acids 75 and 84. These data show that PU.1 contains two types of known activation domains and that both are required for maximal transactivation.

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Selected References

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