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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 May 14.
Published in final edited form as: Cell. 2012 Aug 3;150(3):647–658. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.05.045

Figure 1. Synthetic Construction of Eukaryotic Transcription Functions.

Figure 1

Eukaryotic transcription factors (TFs) perform a variety of molecular functions to control promoters and facilitate the operation of genetic networks (top panel). Zinc fingers (ZFs) are modular domains found in many eukaryotic TFs that make sequence-specific contacts with DNA. Artificial ZF arrays were used as core building blocks for constructing synthetic TFs (sTFs) and gene circuitry in S. cerevisiae (bottom panel). The use of artificial ZF domains permits a fully decomposed design of a sTF, for which the molecular component properties are accessible, modular, and tunable (red italicized). The independent control of these component properties enables the systematic construction and modulation of transcriptional behavior. AD, transcriptional activation domain; GOI, gene of interest; REs, regulatory elements.