An early developmental transcription factor complex that is more stable on nucleosome core particles than on free DNA. Mol Cell 1999 Dec;4(6):961-9
Date
01/15/2000Pubmed ID
10635321DOI
10.1016/s1097-2765(00)80225-7Scopus ID
2-s2.0-0033388099 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 192 CitationsAbstract
In vivo footprinting studies have shown that transcription factor binding sites for HNF3 and GATA-4 are occupied on the albumin gene enhancer in embryonic endoderm, prior to the developmental activation of liver gene transcription. We have investigated how these factors can stably occupy silent chromatin. Remarkably, we find that HNF3, but not GATA-4 or a GAL4 control protein, binds far more stably to nucleosome core particles than to free DNA. In the presence of HNF3, GATA-4 binds stably to an HNF3-positioned nucleosome. Histone acetylation does not affect HNF3 binding. This is evidence for stable nucleosome binding by a transcription factor and shows that a winged helix protein is sufficient to initiate the assembly of an enhancer complex on nonacetylated nucleosomes.
Author List
Cirillo LA, Zaret KSAuthor
Lisa A. Cirillo PhD Assistant Dean, Associate Professor in the Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AnimalsBinding Sites
Chromatin
DNA
DNA-Binding Proteins
Escherichia coli
Forkhead Transcription Factors
GATA4 Transcription Factor
Mice
Nucleosomes
Trans-Activators
Transcription Factors