Summary The sequence specificity of DNA-binding proteins is the primary mechanism by which the cell recognizes genomic features. Here, we describe systematic determination of yeast transcription factor DNA-binding specificities. We obtained binding specificities for 112 DNA-binding proteins representing 19 distinct structural classes, one-third of which have not been previously reported. Several newly discovered binding sequences have striking genomic distributions relative to transcription start sites, supporting their biological relevance and suggesting a role in promoter architecture. Among these are Rsc3 binding sequences, containing the core CGCG, which are found preferentially ~100 bp upstream of transcription start sites. Mutation of RSC3 results in a dramatic increase in nucleosome occupancy in hundreds of proximal promoters containing a Rsc3 binding element, but has little impact on promoters lacking Rsc3 binding sequences, indicating that Rsc3 plays a broad role in targeting nucleosome exclusion at yeast promoters.

SUMMARY The Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domain occurs in animal and plant immune receptors. In the animal Toll-like receptors, homodimerization of the intracellular TIR domain is required for initiation of signaling cascades leading to innate immunity. By contrast, the role of the TIR domain in cytoplasmic nucleotide-binding/leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) plant immune resistance proteins is poorly understood. L6 is a TIR-NB-LRR resistance protein from flax (Linum usitatissimum) that confers resistance to the flax rust phytopathogenic fungus (Melampsora lini). We determine the crystal structure of the L6 TIR domain and show that, although dispensable for pathogenic effector protein recognition, the TIR domain alone is both necessary and sufficient for L6 immune signaling. We demonstrate that the L6 TIR domain self-associates, most likely forming a homodimer. Analysis of the structure combined with site-directed mutagenesis suggests that self-association is a requirement for immune signaling and reveals distinct surface regions involved in self-association, signaling, and autoregulation.

Functional engagement of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) with eukaryotic chromosomes is a fundamental and highly regulated biological process. Here we present a high-resolution map of Pol II occupancy across the entire yeast genome. We compared a wild-type strain with a strain bearing a substitution in the Sen1 helicase, which is a Pol II termination factor for noncoding RNA genes. The wild-type pattern of Pol II distribution provides unexpected insights into the mechanisms by which genes are repressed or silenced. Remarkably, a single amino acid substitution that compromises Sen1 function causes profound changes in Pol II distribution over both noncoding and protein-coding genes, establishing an important function of Sen1 in the regulation of transcription. Given the strong similarity of the yeast and human Sen1 proteins, our results suggest that progressive neurological disorders caused by substitutions in the human Sen1 homolog Senataxin may be due to misregulation of transcription.

Determining the sequence-recognition properties of DNA-binding proteins and small molecules remains a major challenge. To address this need, we have developed a high-throughput approach that provides a comprehensive profile of the binding properties of DNA-binding molecules. The approach is based on displaying every permutation of a duplex DNA sequence (up to 10 positional variants) on a microfabricated array. The entire sequence space is interrogated simultaneously, and the affinity of a DNA-binding molecule for every sequence is obtained in a rapid, unbiased, and unsupervised manner. Using this platform, we have determined the full molecular recognition profile of an engineered small molecule and a eukaryotic transcription factor. The approach also yielded unique insights into the altered sequence-recognition landscapes as a result of cooperative assembly of DNA-binding molecules in a ternary complex. Solution studies strongly corroborated the sequence preferences identified by the array analysis.chemical genomics ͉ ligand-DNA recognition