Eukaryotic transcriptional regulatory complexes: cooperativity from near and afar

Abstract

It is characteristic of eukaryotic transcription that a unique combination of multiple transcriptional regulatory proteins bound to promoter DNA specifically activate or repress downstream target genes; this is referred to as combinatorial gene regulation. Recently determined structures have revealed different modes of protein-protein interaction on the promoter DNA from near (e.g. the Runx1-CBFbeta-DNA, NFAT-Fos-Jun-DNA, GABPalpha-GABPbeta-DNA, Ets-1-Pax-5-DNA and PU.1-IRF-4-DNA complexes) and afar with DNA looping (e.g. the c-Myb-C/EBPbeta-DNA complex), and their regulatory mechanisms.