Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.7.6 (RNA polymerase)
 34,946 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Transcriptional promoters of mitochondrial DNA have diverged extensively in the course of mammalian evolution. Nevertheless, the transcriptional machinery and the overall mechanisms of transcriptional control and regulation seem to be conserved. We have compared the human and murine homologs of the major DNA-binding transcriptional activator, mitochondrial transcription factor 1 (mtTF1), with unexpected results. Both proteins have similar chromatographic and transcriptional properties and are the same size. Both recognize and bind sequences between -12 and -39 within their respective homologous promoters. However, the sequences that they recognize are markedly divergent; although the base pairs they contact are situated similarly or identically with respect to the transcriptional start site, sequence identity between the two species' contact points is less than 50%. Interestingly, the two proteins are functionally interchangeable; each can bind to the heterologous light-strand promoter and can activate transcription by the heterologous mitochondrial RNA polymerase. Thus, the RNA polymerase or some as yet undetected transcription factor, rather than mTF1, may determine the strict species specificity of mitochondrial transcription. Flexible DNA sequence recognition by mtTF1, on the other hand, may be a principal facilitating mechanism for rapid control sequence evolution.
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PMID:Flexible recognition of rapidly evolving promoter sequences by mitochondrial transcription factor 1. 262 67

The regulation of bacteriophage T4 middle and late gene expression involves previously unrecognized mechanisms. Middle transcription requires a DNA-binding transcriptional activator and a sigma 70-binding co-activator. The coupling of late transcription to DNA replication is effected by a DNA-tracking protein that is loaded onto DNA by an assembly factor at enhancer-like entry sites. Late transcription also requires an RNA polymerase core-binding co-activator. The co-activators of T4 middle and late transcription share the property of depressing unactivated, basal transcription.
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PMID:Old phage, new insights: two recently recognized mechanisms of transcriptional regulation in bacteriophage T4 development. 774 35

To gain insights on the transcriptional switches that modulate proper copper homeostasis in yeast, we have examined in detail functional interactions of the relevant transcriptional activator Mac1. We identified Hir1 transcriptional repressor and histone chaperone as a Mac1-interacting protein. This association directly recruits Hir1 on a Mac1 target, CTR1 promoter, quantitatively under induction conditions. We also found Hir1 interacting directly with a previously unknown partner, the Ssn6 (Cyc8) co-regulator. On the non-induced CTR1 promoter, a Hir1 transcriptional activation function was revealed, in the absence of Ssn6, which was dependent on the presence of Snf2 (Swi2) nucleosome remodeler. Moreover, Ssn6 was identified as a Mac1-dependent prominent repressor of CTR1 transcription, antagonizing Snf2 occupancy. Transcriptional induction by copper depletion was effected by the quantitative recruitment of Snf2 directed mainly by Mac1 and redundantly by the quantitatively accumulated Hir1 and Ssn6 pair. Our analysis showed that the activation-effecting chromatin remodeling of CTR1 was due to Snf2 and not to the Hir1 histone chaperone activity or ability to regulate histone levels and stoichiometry. Following initiation, Hir1 and Snf2, but not Ssn6, were found to associate also with the actively transcribing CTR1 coding region, where Hir1 followed the pattern of the elongating RNA polymerase II. Therefore, we have shown that, at the CTR1 gene, in association with Mac1 DNA-binding transcriptional activator, the distinct and alternate genetic and physical collaboration of three global regulators modulates the transcriptional state of a switch involved in copper homeostasis.
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PMID:Synergy of Hir1, Ssn6, and Snf2 global regulators is the functional determinant of a Mac1 transcriptional switch in S. cerevisiae copper homeostasis. 3068 22

While it is known that ScRad9 DNA damage checkpoint protein is recruited to damaged DNA by recognizing specific histone modifications, here we report a different way of Rad9 recruitment on chromatin under non DNA damaging conditions. We found Rad9 to bind directly with the copper-modulated transcriptional activator Mac1, suppressing both its DNA binding and transactivation functions. Rad9 was recruited to active Mac1-target promoters (CTR1, FRE1) and along CTR1 coding region following the association pattern of RNA polymerase (Pol) II. Hir1 histone chaperone also interacted directly with Rad9 and was partly required for its localization throughout CTR1 gene. Moreover, Mac1-dependent transcriptional initiation was necessary and sufficient for Rad9 recruitment to the heterologous ACT1 coding region. In addition to Rad9, Rad53 kinase also localized to CTR1 coding region in a Rad9-dependent manner. Our data provide an example of a yeast DNA-binding transcriptional activator that interacts directly with a DNA damage checkpoint protein in vivo and is functionally restrained by this protein, suggesting a new role for Rad9 in connecting factors of the transcription machinery with the DNA repair pathway under unchallenged conditions.
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PMID:Distinct associations of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rad9 protein link Mac1-regulated transcription to DNA repair. 3178 68