Figure 1.

Mechanisms of Aire and Fezf2 in the transcription regulation of TSAs in mTECs. Aire preferentially targets activating ATF7ip-MBD1 which interacts with methylated DNA, causing TSA expression in mTECs. In addition, here is shown Aire’s interaction with DNA-PK which is responsible for the repair of DSBs that are associated with transcription initiation. Aire also recruits P-TEFb and HnRNPL to favor the release of stalled RNA polymerase for elongation of Aire-dependent TSAs. CBP and Sirt1 respectively acetylates and deacetylates Aire that regulate Aire-regulated TSA expression. Unlike Aire, Fezf2 regulates TSA expression in mTECs by binding to the promoters.