The paper describes a rapid and sensitive assay for DNA binding proteins which interact with specific and defined binding sites. It exploits the observation that complexes of proteins and small synthetic DNA fragments (40 bp) containing the protein/DNA binding site can enter native polyacrylamide gels and remain stably associated during electrophoresis under non-denaturing conditions. The assay was applied to nuclear factor I, to its identification and purification from porcine liver, to an analysis of its binding site on adenovirus type 5 DNA and to an exploration of other potential binding sites for DNA binding proteins within the inverted terminal repetition of adenovirus DNA. The extreme sensitivity of the assay which surpasses that of conventional footprint assays by at least two orders of magnitude permitted the identification of nuclear factor I-like activities in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Nuclear factor I (NFI) was purified to homogeneity from porcine liver by DNA-affinity chromatography and displays a single band with a molecular weight of 36 kDa in SDS-polyacrylamide gels. The purified protein was used to determine absolute equilibrium binding constants by gel retardation techniques for a variety of DNA fragments with genuine or mutated NFI binding sites and a number of DNA fragments derived from various eukaryotic promoters carrying the CCAAT-box as a half-site for NFI binding. We present a model which allows prediction of the functional significance of mutated NFI binding-sites from sequence data. The data suggest that the single molecular species of NFI from porcine liver may not be able to recognize and activate the -CCAAT- promoter element in vivo without additional interactions, e.g. with other proteins.
The 5'ACGCGT3' MluI motif, which is found in the upstream region of several yeast DNA-synthesis genes which are periodically expressed during the mitotic cell-cycle, is present twice in the 5' non-coding region of the DNA-polymerase alpha gene (POL1). Deletion of the most distal repeat does not affect POL1 transcription, while the adjacent 40 base-pair (bp) downstream sequence is necessary both for the proper level and the fluctuation of POL1 mRNA. This region contains the 5'ACGCGTCGCGT3' sequence, which is sufficient to control periodic transcription of a CYC1-lacZ reporter gene with the same kinetics observed for POL1. The adjacent 29 bp AT-rich region does not show any activity by itself, but it acts synergistically in conjunction with at least one MluI hexamer to stimulate CYC1-lacZ expression. By further deletion analysis, DNA sequences necessary to initiate POL1 transcription at the proper sites have also been identified.
This study describes the isolation of a major portion of the gene for nuclear factor I (NFI) including its S-flanking region with transcriptional start sites. We screened a porcine liver, genomic DNA library in phage EMBL3A with synthetic oligonucleotides derived from tryptic and cyanogen-bromide peptide sequences obtained from purified NFI protein. The NFI gene is present as a single copy in porcine DNA.
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