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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1995 Dec 5;92(25):11864–11868. doi: 10.1073/pnas.92.25.11864

Core promoter-specific function of a mutant transcription factor TFIID defective in TATA-box binding.

E Martinez 1, Q Zhou 1, N D L'Etoile 1, T Oelgeschläger 1, A J Berk 1, R G Roeder 1
PMCID: PMC40503  PMID: 8524864

Abstract

In conjunction with other general initiation factors, the TATA box-binding protein (TBP) can direct basal transcription by RNA polymerase II from TATA-containing promoters, but its stable interaction with TBP-associated factors (TAFs) in the TFIID complex is required both for activator-dependent transcription and for basal transcription directed by an initiator element. We have generated a TATA-binding-defective TFIID complex containing an amino acid substitution in the DNA-binding surface of its TBP subunit. This mutated TFIID is defective in both basal and activated transcription from core promoters containing only a TATA box but supports transcription from initiator-containing promoters independently of the presence or absence of a TATA sequence. Our results show that a functional initiator element is needed to bypass the requirement for an active TATA DNA-binding surface in TFIID and imply that gene-specific transcription can be achieved by modulating distinct core promoter-specific TFIID functions--e.g., TBP-TATA versus TAF-initiator interactions.

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Selected References

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