Ni/NiO core/shell nanoparticles having high affinity with polyhistidine were synthesized by decomposition of a Ni surfactant complex followed by air oxidation. Ni/NiO nanoparticles showed selective and efficient binding to histidine-tagged proteins and easy separation by using a magnet. These provided a more convenient way to efficient purification of histidine-tagged proteins compared with the conventional Ni-NTA complex-bound resins and microbeads.

STAT proteins (signal transducers and activators of transcription) are latent cytoplasmic transcription factors that are phosphorylated by Janus kinases in response to cytokines. Phosphorylated STAT proteins translocate to the nucleus, where they transiently turn on specific sets of cytokine-inducible genes. The mechanism that controls the amounts of activated STAT proteins is not understood. STAT1 proteins activated by interferon-gamma treatment in HeLa cells were shown to be stabilized by a proteasome inhibitor and ubiquitinated in vivo. Thus, the amount of activated STAT1 may be negatively regulated by the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway.

A functional interferon-beta gene enhanceosome was assembled in vitro using the purified recombinant transcriptional activator proteins ATF2/c-JUN, IRF1, and p50/p65 of NF-kappa B. Maximal levels of transcriptional synergy between these activators required the specific interactions with the architectural protein HMG I(Y) and the correct helical phasing of the binding sites of these proteins on the DNA helix. Analyses of the in vitro assembled enhanceosome revealed that the transcriptional synergy is due, at least in part, to the cooperative assembly and stability of the complex. Reconstitution experiments showed that the formation of a stable enhanceosome-dependent preinitiation complex require cooperative interactions between the enhanceosome; the general transcription factors TFID, TFIIA, and TFIIB; and the cofactor USA. These studies provide a direct biochemical demonstration of the importance of the structure and function of natural multicomponent transcriptional enhancer complexes in gene regulation.

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