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Query: UNIPROT:P51532 (transcriptional activator)
 6,546 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This review focuses on the gene-enzyme relationships and the regulation of different levels of the aromatic amino acid biosynthetic pathway in a simple eukaryotic system, the unicellular yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Most reactions of this branched pathway are common to all organisms which are able to synthesize tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine. The current knowledge about the two main control mechanisms of the yeast aromatic amino acid biosynthesis is reviewed. (i) At the transcriptional level, most structural genes are regulated by the transcriptional activator GCN4, the regulator of the general amino acid control network, which couples transcriptional derepression to amino acid starvation of numerous structural genes in multiple amino acid biosynthetic pathways. (ii) At the enzyme level, the carbon flow is controlled mainly by modulating the enzyme activities at the first step of the pathway and at the branch points by feedback action of the three aromatic amino acid end products. Implications of these findings for the relationship of S. cerevisiae to prokaryotic as well as to higher eukaryotic organisms and for general regulatory mechanisms occurring in a living cell such as initiation of transcription, enzyme regulation, and the regulation of a metabolic branch point are discussed.
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PMID:Aromatic amino acid biosynthesis in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae: a model system for the regulation of a eukaryotic biosynthetic pathway. 194 92

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae PUT3 gene encodes a transcriptional activator that binds to DNA sequences in the promoters of the proline utilization genes and is required for the basal and induced expression of the enzymes of this pathway. The sequence of the wild-type PUT3 gene revealed the presence of one large open reading frame capable of encoding a 979-amino-acid protein. The protein contains amino-terminal basic and cysteine-rich domains homologous to the DNA-binding motifs of other yeast transcriptional activators. Adjacent to these domains is an acidic domain with a net charge of -17. A second acidic domain with a net charge of -29 is located at the carboxy terminus. The midsection of the PUT3 protein has homology to other activators including GAL4, LAC9, PPR1, and PDR1. Mutations in PUT3 causing aberrant (either constitutive or noninducible) expression of target genes in this system have been analyzed. One activator-defective and seven activator-constitutive PUT3 alleles have been retrieved from the genome and sequenced to determine the nucleotide changes responsible for the altered function of the protein. The activator-defective mutation is a single nucleotide change within codon 409, replacing glycine with aspartic acid. One activator-constitutive mutation is a nucleotide change at codon 683, substituting phenylalanine for serine. The remaining constitutive mutations resulted in amino acid substitutions or truncations of the protein within the carboxy-terminal 76 codons. Mechanisms for regulating the activation function of the PUT3 protein are discussed.
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PMID:Analysis of constitutive and noninducible mutations of the PUT3 transcriptional activator. 201 67

GCN4 is a transcriptional activator in the bZIP family that regulates amino acid biosynthetic genes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Previous work suggested that the principal activation domain of GCN4 is a highly acidic segment of approximately 40 amino acids located in the center of the protein. We conducted a mutational analysis of GCN4 with a single-copy allele expressed under the control of the native promoter and translational control elements. Our results indicate that GCN4 contains two activation domains of similar potency that can function independently to promote high-level transcription of the target genes HIS3 and HIS4. One of these domains is coincident with the acidic activation domain defined previously; the other extends over the N-terminal one-third of the protein. Both domains are partially dependent on the coactivator protein ADA2. Each domain appears to be composed of two or more small subdomains that have additive effects on transcription and that can cooperate in different combinations to promote high-level expression of HIS3 and HIS4. At least three of these subdomains are critically dependent on bulky hydrophobic amino acids for their function. Five of the important hydrophobic residues, Phe-97, Phe-98, Met-107, Tyr-110, and Leu-113, fall within a region of proposed sequence homology between GCN4 and the herpesvirus acidic activator VP16. The remaining three residues, Trp-120, Leu-123, and Phe-124, are highly conserved between GCN4 and its Neurospora counterpart, cpc-1. Because of the functional redundancy in the activation domain, mutations at positions 97 and 98 must be combined with mutations at positions 120 to 124 to observe a substantial reduction in activation by full-length GCN4, and substitution of all eight hydrophobic residues was required to inactivate full-length GCN4. These hydrophobic residues may mediate important interactions between GCN4 and one or more of its target proteins in the transcription initiation complex.
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PMID:The transcriptional activator GCN4 contains multiple activation domains that are critically dependent on hydrophobic amino acids. 786 16

The p53 tumor suppressor gene product is a transcriptional activator that may be associated with its ability to suppress tumor cell growth. The acidic amino terminus of the p53 protein has been shown to contain this trans-activation activity as well as the domains for mdm-2 and adenovirus 5 E1B 55-kD protein binding. An extensive genetic analysis of this amino-terminal p53 domain has been undertaken using site-specific mutagenesis. The results demonstrate that the acidic residues in the amino terminus of p53 may contribute to, but are not critical for, this trans-activation activity. Rather, the hydrophobic amino acid residues Leu-22 and Trp-23 of human p53 are both required for trans-activation activity, binding to the adenovirus E1B 55-kD protein and the human mdm-2-p53 protein in vitro. In addition, hydrophobic residues Leu-14 and Phe-19 are crucial for the interactions between p53 and human mdm-2 (hdm-2). Hydrophobic residues Trp-23 and Pro-27 are also important for binding to the adenovirus 5 (Ad5) E1B 55-kD protein in vitro. These mutations have no impact on the ability of the p53 protein to bind to a p53-specific DNA element. These results suggest that 2-4 critical hydrophobic residues in the amino-terminal domain of the p53 protein interact with the transcriptional machinery of the cell resulting in transcriptional activation. These very same hydrophobic residues contact the hdm-2 and Ad5 E1B 55-kD oncogene products.
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PMID:Several hydrophobic amino acids in the p53 amino-terminal domain are required for transcriptional activation, binding to mdm-2 and the adenovirus 5 E1B 55-kD protein. 792 27

Constitutive up-regulation of interleukin-6 (IL-6) gene expression is observed in many neoplastic cell lines. The contribution of mutations in p53 to the up-regulation of the IL-6 promoter was evaluated in transient transfection experiments. In HeLa cells, wild-type (wt) human or murine p53 preferentially repressed the IL-6 promoter. The p53 mutants Val-135 and Phe-132 up-regulated IL-6 promoter activity in these cells at both 32.5 and 37 degrees C. The temperature-sensitive Val-135 mutant was not only not inhibitory or "wt-like" at the lower temperature, but had gained a transcriptional activator phenotype which was temperature-independent in HeLa cells. The functional DNA target for transcriptional modulation of the IL-6 promoter by p53 species included the multiple cytokine- and second messenger-response element (-173 to -145); point mutations in the transcription factor C/EBP beta-binding site within the second messenger-response element largely blocked the ability of p53 mutants Val-135 and Phe-132 to up-regulate this promoter. The up-regulation of IL-6 promoter constructs by co-transfection into HeLa cells of a C/EBP beta constitutive expression vector was blocked in a dominant negative manner by wt p53. In contrast, the p53 mutants Val-135 and Phe-132 further enhanced C/EBP beta-mediated up-regulation of IL-6 promoter constructs. The modulation of C/EBP beta function by p53 species provides a basis for the involvement of p53 not only in the regulation of cytokine synthesis but also in the altered responsiveness of tumor cells to cytokines.
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PMID:Modulation of the human interleukin-6 promoter (IL-6) and transcription factor C/EBP beta (NF-IL6) activity by p53 species. 832 85

GCN4 is a transcriptional activator in the bZIP family that regulates amino acid biosynthetic genes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The N-terminal 100 amino acids of GCN4 contains a potent activation function that confers high-level transcription in the absence of the centrally located acidic activation domain (CAAD) delineated in previous studies. To identify specific amino acids important for activation by the N-terminal domain, we mutagenized a GCN4 allele lacking the CAAD and screened alleles in vivo for reduced expression of the HIS3 gene. We found four pairs of closely spaced phenylalanines and a leucine residue distributed throughout the N-terminal 100 residues of GCN4 that are required for high-level activation in the absence of the CAAD. Trp, Leu, and Tyr were highly functional substitutions for the Phe residue at position 45. Combined with our previous findings, these results indicate that GCN4 contains seven clusters of aromatic or bulky hydrophobic residues which make important contributions to transcriptional activation at HIS3. None of the seven hydrophobic clusters is essential for activation by full-length GCN4, and the critical residues in two or three clusters must be mutated simultaneously to observe a substantial reduction in GCN4 function. Numerous combinations of four or five intact clusters conferred high-level transcription of HIS3. We propose that many of the hydrophobic clusters in GCN4 act independently of one another to provide redundant means of stimulating transcription and that the functional contributions of these different segments are cumulative at the HIS3 promoter. On the basis of the primacy of bulky hydrophobic residues throughout the activation domain, we suggest that GCN4 contains multiple sites that mediate hydrophobic contacts with one or more components of the transcription initiation machinery.
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PMID:Identification of seven hydrophobic clusters in GCN4 making redundant contributions to transcriptional activation. 881 68

A novel bacteriophage defense system, based on an inducible suicide gene, was challenged with a lactococcal bacteriophage to investigate the potential for phage adaptation. The defense system was encoded by pTRK414H, a high-copy-number replicon encoding a tightly regulated phi 31p trigger promoter fused to the lethal LlaIR+ restriction endonuclease cassette. Repeated transfers of Lactococcus lactis NCK690(pTRK414H) in the presence of phi 31 selected for phage phi 31 derivatives which were markedly less sensitive to phi 31p-LlaIR(+)-encoded restriction than the parental phage, phi 31. The efficiency of plaquing (EOP) on L. lactis NCK690(pTRK414H) was 10(-4) for phi 31 versus 0.4 for the derived phages. The mutant phages remained fully sensitive to LlaIR+ restriction, suggesting an alteration in the recognition or firing of the phi 31p promoter. Sequencing over the promoter region in four mutant phages revealed the identical C-to-A transversion, generating a Phe-to-Leu substitution, in a transcriptional activator of the phi 31p promoter, designated ORF2. The mutant phages were analyzed for their ability to induce the native phi 31p promoter element fused to a lacZst reporter gene. Compared to the parental phage, phi 31, lower levels of beta-galactosidase activity were induced throughout the lytic cycle, indicating that the strength at which the mutant phages activated the phi 31p promoter was altered. Based on these observations, improvements were made in promoter strength and restriction activity in an attempt to elevate the effectiveness of the phage-triggered suicide system. When the phi 31p-LlaIR+ cassette was paired with other abortive defense systems, Per31 and AbiA, the EOP of phi 31 was reduced to < 10(-10) and the level of phage in the culture was lowered below the detection limits of the assay.
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PMID:Bacteriophage-triggered defense systems: phage adaptation and design improvements. 936 24

The varicella-zoster virus (VZV) causes chickenpox (varicella) as the primary disease and shingles (zoster) as a recurrent manifestation of infection, both being generally benign and self-limiting. While these infections may be severe in adults and even life-threatening in immunosuppressed individuals, they may be amenable to effective antiviral drugs or varicella-zoster immune globulin, provided the treatment is administered early. The prompt diagnosis of VZV infections may be accelerated by rapid, sensitive and specific molecular techniques such as amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) compared with slower and more cumbersome tissue culture and serological procedures. Based on the VZV gene 4 which encodes a transcriptional activator, primers were designed for use in PCR to amplify a target fragment of 381 bp. Distinct diagnostic bands were observed by agarose gel electrophoresis of PCR products of VZV strains isolated from 11 varicella and 7 zoster patients in Singapore, as well as of the Japanese vaccine Oka strain. The detection sensitivity of this PCR assay was determined to be 1 pg of purified VZV DNA equivalent to about 7,000 viral DNA copies. No target bands were amplified from negative control templates from five related human herpes-viruses and from human DNA. The specificity of the PCR products was ensured by direct cycle DNA sequencing, which revealed complete identity of the 18 VZV isolates with the published European Dumas strain. The strong sequence conservation of the target fragment renders this PCR assay highly reliable for detecting the VZV sequence. Only one VZV strain isolated from a patient with varicella during pregnancy exhibited a GGA to GAA point mutation at codon 46 of gene 4, culminating in the non-conservative substitution of Ser with Phe. The predicted secondary structure of the mutant polypeptide portrayed a radical alteration, which may influence its function in transcriptional activation.
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PMID:Amplification and sequencing of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) gene 4: point mutation in a VZV strain causing chickenpox during pregnancy. 960 81

The Vpr protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) performs a number of functions that are associated with the nucleus. Vpr enhances the nuclear import of postentry viral nucleoprotein complexes, arrests proliferating cells in the G2 phase of the cell cycle, and acts as a modest transcriptional activator. For this paper, we have investigated the nuclear import of Vpr. Although Vpr does not encode a sequence that is recognizable as a nuclear localization signal (NLS), Vpr functions as a transferable NLS both in somatic cells and in Xenopus laevis oocytes. In certain contexts, Vpr also mediates substantial accumulation at the nuclear envelope and, in particular, at nuclear pore complexes (NPCs). Consistent with this, Vpr is shown to interact specifically with nucleoporin phenylalanine-glycine (FG)-repeat regions. These findings not only demonstrate that Vpr harbors a bona fide NLS but also raise the possibility that one (or more) of Vpr's functions may take place at the NPC.
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PMID:Interaction of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Vpr protein with the nuclear pore complex. 962 Oct 63

The VP16 protein of herpes simplex virus is a potent transcriptional activator of the viral immediate early genes. The transcriptional activation region of VP16 can be divided into two functional subregions, here designated VP16N (comprising amino acids 413-456) and VP16C (amino acids 450-490). Assays of VP16C mutants resulting from both random and alanine-scanning mutagenesis indicated that the sidechains of three phenylalanines (at positions 473, 475 and 479) and one acidic residue (glutamate 476) are important for transcriptional activation. Aromatic and bulky hydrophobic amino acids were effective substitutes for each of the three Phe residues, whereas replacement with smaller or polar amino acids resulted in loss of transcriptional function. In contrast, many changes were tolerated for Glu476, including bulky hydrophobic and basic amino acids, indicating that the negative charge at this position contributes little to the function of this subregion. Similar relative activities for most of the mutants were observed in yeast and in mammalian cells, indicating that the structural requirements for this activation region are comparable in these two species. These results reinforce the hypothesis that bulky hydrophobic residues, not acidic residues, are most critical for the activity of this 'acidic' transcriptional activation region.
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PMID:Mutational analysis of a transcriptional activation region of the VP16 protein of herpes simplex virus. 974 54


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