Open AccessA novel, tissue-restricted zinc finger protein (HF-1b) binds to the cardiac regulatory element (HF-1b/MEF-2) in the rat myosin light-chain 2 gene.
Author(s) -
Hong Zhu,
V T Nguyen,
Anne B. Brown,
A Pourhosseini,
A V Garcia,
Marc van Bilsen,
Kenneth R. Chien
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
molecular and cellular biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.14
H-Index - 327
eISSN - 1067-8824
pISSN - 0270-7306
DOI - 10.1128/mcb.13.7.4432
Subject(s) - zinc finger , biology , skeletal muscle , promoter , cardiac muscle , gene , gene expression , activator (genetics) , transcriptional regulation , lim domain , transcription factor , regulation of gene expression , microbiology and biotechnology , myosin , biochemistry , anatomy
The AT-rich element MEF-2 plays an important role in the maintenance of the muscle-specific expression of a number of cardiac and skeletal muscle genes. In the MLC-2 gene, an AT-rich element (HF-1b) which contains a consensus MEF-2 site is required for cardiac tissue-specific expression. The present study reports the isolation and characterization of a cDNA which encodes a novel C2H2 zinc finger (HF-1b) that binds in a sequence-specific manner to the HF-1b/MEF-2 site in the MLC-2 promoter. A number of independent criteria suggest that this HF-1b zinc finger protein is a component of the endogenous HF-1b/MEF-2 binding activity in cardiac muscle cells and that it can serve as a transcriptional activator of the MLC-2 promoter in transient assays. These studies suggest that, in addition to the previously reported RSRF proteins, structurally divergent transcriptional factors can bind to MEF-2-like sites in muscle promoters. These results underscore the complexity of the regulation of the muscle gene program via these AT-rich elements in cardiac and skeletal muscle.