“…This central domain of PARP-1 encompasses a BRCT (BRCA1 C-terminus) motif (aa 372-476) involved in interactions with other proteins, including PARP itself, histones (Buki et al, 1995), XRCC1 (Masson et al, 1998), Oct 1 (Nie et al, 1998), HPV18 E2 (Lee et al, 2002), NF-kB p50 and p65 (Hassa et al, 2001), and p53 (Wesierska-Gadek et al, 2003). Comprising about 100 residues, this BRCT motif is ubiquitous in other proteins involved in DNA repair and cell cycle checkpoints, including XRCC1, DNA ligase III (Nashh et al, 1997), XRCC4, DNA ligase IV (Critchlow et al, 1997), and p53 (Yamane et al, 2001), and represents an interface for multimerization and specific protein-protein contacts between protein pairs. Our results showing that PARP-1 neither binds internal sequences of the E2F-1 promoter nor modifies E2F-1 by poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation is consistent with the fact that PARP-1-E2F-1 binding does not require the DNAbinding domain or the catalytic active site of PARP-1.…”