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CTCF is conserved from Drosophila to humans and confers enhancer blocking of the Fab‐8 insulator
Author(s) -
Moon Hanlim,
Filippova Galina,
Loukinov Dmitry,
Pugacheva Elena,
Chen Qi,
Smith Sheryl T,
Munhall Adam,
Grewe Britta,
Bartkuhn Marek,
Arnold Rüdiger,
Burke Les J,
RenkawitzPohl Renate,
Ohlsson Rolf,
Zhou Jumin,
Renkawitz Rainer,
Lobanenkov Victor
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
embo reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.584
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1469-3178
pISSN - 1469-221X
DOI - 10.1038/sj.embor.7400334
Subject(s) - enhancer , ctcf , insulator (electricity) , biology , chromatin , genetics , gene , enhancer rnas , microbiology and biotechnology , locus (genetics) , zinc finger , transcription factor , enhancer trap , drosophila melanogaster , physics , optoelectronics
Eukaryotic transcriptional regulation often involves regulatory elements separated from the cognate genes by long distances, whereas appropriately positioned insulator or enhancer‐blocking elements shield promoters from illegitimate enhancer action. Four proteins have been identified in Drosophila mediating enhancer blocking—Su(Hw), Zw5, BEAF32 and GAGA factor. In vertebrates, the single protein CTCF, with 11 highly conserved zinc fingers, confers enhancer blocking in all known chromatin insulators. Here, we characterize an orthologous CTCF factor in Drosophila with a similar domain structure, binding site specificity and transcriptional repression activity as in vertebrates. In addition, we demonstrate that one of the insulators ( Fab‐8 ) in the Drosophila Abdominal‐B locus mediates enhancer blocking by dCTCF. Therefore, the enhancer‐blocking protein CTCF and, most probably, the mechanism of enhancer blocking mediated by this remarkably versatile factor are conserved from Drosophila to humans.