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Regulation of Drosophila Adh promoter switching by an initiator‐targeted repression mechanism
Author(s) -
Ren Bing,
Maniatis Tom
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1093/emboj/17.4.1076
Subject(s) - biology , psychological repression , mechanism (biology) , microbiology and biotechnology , drosophila (subgenus) , genetics , gene , gene expression , philosophy , epistemology
The stage‐specific expression of the Drosophila alcohol dehydrogenase ( Adh ) gene is achieved through the alternate activation of two tandem promoters. The proximal promoter is active primarily during late embryonic development and early larval stages, while the distal promoter is active in late third instar larvae and adults. Here, we provide evidence that this Adh promoter switch is regulated by a zinc finger repressor protein (AEF‐1) that is expressed predominantly in adult flies and targets the initiator region of the proximal promoter. We propose that AEF‐1 plays a critical role in Adh promoter switching by blocking interactions between a component of the general transcription machinery and the initiator region of the proximal promoter.