Open AccessIdentification of novel factors that bind to the PRD I region of the human β-interferon promoter
Author(s) -
Simon T. Whiteside,
Kanna V. Visvanathan,
Stephen Goodbourn
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
nucleic acids research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 9.008
H-Index - 537
eISSN - 1362-4954
pISSN - 0305-1048
DOI - 10.1093/nar/20.7.1531
Subject(s) - biology , repressor , interferon regulatory factors , interferon , transcription factor , gene , irf8 , regulation of gene expression , microbiology and biotechnology , regulatory sequence , genetics
Treatment of cells with virus or synthetic double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) leads to the transient transcriptional activation of the beta-interferon gene. Genetic analysis has revealed that the 5' regulatory sequence responsible for this induction contains multiple positive and negative elements. One of these, Positive Regulatory Domain I (PRD I), has been shown to bind the positively-acting transcription factor IRF-1. In this study we show that this element is inducible under conditions where IRF-1 cannot be detected, suggesting that additional cellular factors are involved in the induction process. To investigate the existence of such factors we have analysed the range and properties of PRD I-binding activities present in HeLa cells. In addition to the repressor protein IRF-2, several novel factors can bind to PRD I in uninduced cells: two of these have properties consistent with a role in negative regulation; levels of two others increase upon priming, and may be alternative candidates for activators. Upon induction we also observe a novel factor whose appearance does not depend upon de novo protein synthesis, and which appears to be a truncated form of IRF-2. The potential involvement of these factors in regulating the beta-interferon gene is discussed.