Skip to main content
Molecular and Cellular Biology logoLink to Molecular and Cellular Biology
. 1996 Jul;16(7):3773–3780. doi: 10.1128/mcb.16.7.3773

DNA sequence preferences of GAL4 and PPR1: how a subset of Zn2 Cys6 binuclear cluster proteins recognizes DNA.

S D Liang 1, R Marmorstein 1, S C Harrison 1, M Ptashine 1
PMCID: PMC231373  PMID: 8668194

Abstract

Biophysical and genetic experiments have defined how the Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein GAL4 and a subset of related proteins recognize specific DNA sequences. We assessed DNA sequence preferences of GAL4 and a related protein, PPR1, in an in vitro DNA binding assay. For GAL4, the palindromic CGG triplets at the ends of the 17-bp recognition site are essential for tight binding, whereas the identities of the internal 11 bp are much less important, results consistent with the GAL4-DNA crystal structure. Small reductions in affinity due to mutations at the center-most 5 bp are consistent with the idea that an observed constriction in the minor groove in the crystalline GAL4-DNA complex is sequence dependent. The crystal structure suggests that this sequence dependence is due to phosphate contacts mediated by arginine 51, as part of a network of hydrogen bonds. Here we show that the mutant protein GAL4(1-100)R51A fails to discriminate sites with alterations in the center of the site from the wild-type site. PPR1, a relative of GAL4, also recognizes palindromic CGG triplets at the ends of its 12-bp recognition sequence. The identities of the internal 6 bp do not influence the binding of PPR1. We also show that the PPR1 site consists of a 12-bp duplex rather than 16 bp as reported previously: the two T residues immediately 5' to the CGG sequence in each half site, although highly conserved, are not important for binding by PPR1. Thus, GAL4 and PPR1 share common CGG half sites, but they prefer DNA sequences with the palindromic CGG separated by the appropriate number of base pairs, 11 for GAL4 and 6 for PPR1.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (551.9 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Baleja J. D., Marmorstein R., Harrison S. C., Wagner G. Solution structure of the DNA-binding domain of Cd2-GAL4 from S. cerevisiae. Nature. 1992 Apr 2;356(6368):450–453. doi: 10.1038/356450a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Barberis A., Pearlberg J., Simkovich N., Farrell S., Reinagel P., Bamdad C., Sigal G., Ptashne M. Contact with a component of the polymerase II holoenzyme suffices for gene activation. Cell. 1995 May 5;81(3):359–368. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(95)90389-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bram R. J., Kornberg R. D. Specific protein binding to far upstream activating sequences in polymerase II promoters. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Jan;82(1):43–47. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.1.43. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bram R. J., Lue N. F., Kornberg R. D. A GAL family of upstream activating sequences in yeast: roles in both induction and repression of transcription. EMBO J. 1986 Mar;5(3):603–608. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04253.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Carey M., Kakidani H., Leatherwood J., Mostashari F., Ptashne M. An amino-terminal fragment of GAL4 binds DNA as a dimer. J Mol Biol. 1989 Oct 5;209(3):423–432. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(89)90007-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Corton J. C., Johnston S. A. Altering DNA-binding specificity of GAL4 requires sequences adjacent to the zinc finger. Nature. 1989 Aug 31;340(6236):724–727. doi: 10.1038/340724a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Fried M., Crothers D. M. Equilibria and kinetics of lac repressor-operator interactions by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Dec 11;9(23):6505–6525. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.23.6505. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Giniger E., Ptashne M. Transcription in yeast activated by a putative amphipathic alpha helix linked to a DNA binding unit. Nature. 1987 Dec 17;330(6149):670–672. doi: 10.1038/330670a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Giniger E., Varnum S. M., Ptashne M. Specific DNA binding of GAL4, a positive regulatory protein of yeast. Cell. 1985 Apr;40(4):767–774. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90336-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Halvorsen Y. D., Nandabalan K., Dickson R. C. Identification of base and backbone contacts used for DNA sequence recognition and high-affinity binding by LAC9, a transcription activator containing a C6 zinc finger. Mol Cell Biol. 1991 Apr;11(4):1777–1784. doi: 10.1128/mcb.11.4.1777. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Harrison S. C. A structural taxonomy of DNA-binding domains. Nature. 1991 Oct 24;353(6346):715–719. doi: 10.1038/353715a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Himmelfarb H. J., Pearlberg J., Last D. H., Ptashne M. GAL11P: a yeast mutation that potentiates the effect of weak GAL4-derived activators. Cell. 1990 Dec 21;63(6):1299–1309. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90425-e. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ito H., Fukuda Y., Murata K., Kimura A. Transformation of intact yeast cells treated with alkali cations. J Bacteriol. 1983 Jan;153(1):163–168. doi: 10.1128/jb.153.1.163-168.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Johnston M. A model fungal gene regulatory mechanism: the GAL genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Microbiol Rev. 1987 Dec;51(4):458–476. doi: 10.1128/mr.51.4.458-476.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Kang T., Martins T., Sadowski I. Wild type GAL4 binds cooperatively to the GAL1-10 UASG in vitro. J Biol Chem. 1993 May 5;268(13):9629–9635. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Keegan L., Gill G., Ptashne M. Separation of DNA binding from the transcription-activating function of a eukaryotic regulatory protein. Science. 1986 Feb 14;231(4739):699–704. doi: 10.1126/science.3080805. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Koudelka G. B., Harrison S. C., Ptashne M. Effect of non-contacted bases on the affinity of 434 operator for 434 repressor and Cro. 1987 Apr 30-May 6Nature. 326(6116):886–888. doi: 10.1038/326886a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Kraulis P. J., Raine A. R., Gadhavi P. L., Laue E. D. Structure of the DNA-binding domain of zinc GAL4. Nature. 1992 Apr 2;356(6368):448–450. doi: 10.1038/356448a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Kunkel T. A. Rapid and efficient site-specific mutagenesis without phenotypic selection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Jan;82(2):488–492. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.2.488. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Ma J., Ptashne M. A new class of yeast transcriptional activators. Cell. 1987 Oct 9;51(1):113–119. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90015-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Ma J., Ptashne M. Deletion analysis of GAL4 defines two transcriptional activating segments. Cell. 1987 Mar 13;48(5):847–853. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90081-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Marmorstein R., Carey M., Ptashne M., Harrison S. C. DNA recognition by GAL4: structure of a protein-DNA complex. Nature. 1992 Apr 2;356(6368):408–414. doi: 10.1038/356408a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Marmorstein R., Harrison S. C. Crystal structure of a PPR1-DNA complex: DNA recognition by proteins containing a Zn2Cys6 binuclear cluster. Genes Dev. 1994 Oct 15;8(20):2504–2512. doi: 10.1101/gad.8.20.2504. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Maxam A. M., Gilbert W. Sequencing end-labeled DNA with base-specific chemical cleavages. Methods Enzymol. 1980;65(1):499–560. doi: 10.1016/s0076-6879(80)65059-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Reece R. J., Ptashne M. Determinants of binding-site specificity among yeast C6 zinc cluster proteins. Science. 1993 Aug 13;261(5123):909–911. doi: 10.1126/science.8346441. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Roy A., Exinger F., Losson R. cis- and trans-acting regulatory elements of the yeast URA3 promoter. Mol Cell Biol. 1990 Oct;10(10):5257–5270. doi: 10.1128/mcb.10.10.5257. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Sadowski I., Bell B., Broad P., Hollis M. GAL4 fusion vectors for expression in yeast or mammalian cells. Gene. 1992 Sep 1;118(1):137–141. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(92)90261-m. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Sanger F., Nicklen S., Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Dec;74(12):5463–5467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Taylor I. C., Workman J. L., Schuetz T. J., Kingston R. E. Facilitated binding of GAL4 and heat shock factor to nucleosomal templates: differential function of DNA-binding domains. Genes Dev. 1991 Jul;5(7):1285–1298. doi: 10.1101/gad.5.7.1285. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Vashee S., Xu H., Johnston S. A., Kodadek T. How do "Zn2 cys6" proteins distinguish between similar upstream activation sites? Comparison of the DNA-binding specificity of the GAL4 protein in vitro and in vivo. J Biol Chem. 1993 Nov 25;268(33):24699–24706. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Webster N., Jin J. R., Green S., Hollis M., Chambon P. The yeast UASG is a transcriptional enhancer in human HeLa cells in the presence of the GAL4 trans-activator. Cell. 1988 Jan 29;52(2):169–178. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90505-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. West R. W., Jr, Yocum R. R., Ptashne M. Saccharomyces cerevisiae GAL1-GAL10 divergent promoter region: location and function of the upstream activating sequence UASG. Mol Cell Biol. 1984 Nov;4(11):2467–2478. doi: 10.1128/mcb.4.11.2467. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Witte M. M., Dickson R. C. The C6 zinc finger and adjacent amino acids determine DNA-binding specificity and affinity in the yeast activator proteins LAC9 and PPR1. Mol Cell Biol. 1990 Oct;10(10):5128–5137. doi: 10.1128/mcb.10.10.5128. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Molecular and Cellular Biology are provided here courtesy of Taylor & Francis

RESOURCES