Bending of promoter DNA on binding of heat shock transcription factor

• Published in: Nature (London) 1986-10, Vol.323 (6087), p.459-461
• Main Authors: Shuey, David J., Parker, Carl S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Autoradiography; Biological and medical sciences; DNA Restriction Enzymes; Drosophila; Drosophila - genetics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Heat-Shock Proteins - genetics; Humanities and Social Sciences; letter; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; multidisciplinary; Nucleic Acid Conformation; Promoter Regions, Genetic; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Transcription Factors; Transcription. Transcription factor. Splicing. Rna processing
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/323459a0

The Drosophila heat-shock transcription factor (HSTF) has been shown to bind to three domains of the heat shock protein 70 gene ( hsp 70 ) control region 1,2 . The most critical of these for transcrip-tional activation appears to be the one closest to the TATA-homology region 2–4 . This domain, spanning sequences from −40 to −95, consists of two contiguous HSTF binding sites (sites 1 and 2) that are occupied in a cooperative manner 2 (see Fig. 1). Recent alkylation interference and protection studies suggest a conformational change occurs in the protein-DNA complex at site 1 upon sequential HSTF binding at site 2 (ref. 5). We report here that HSTF binding to a single site or to both contiguous sites results in the introduction of a specific DNA bend within this domain of the hsp 70 promoter.