V. Zappavigna et al., HMG1 INTERACTS WITH HOX PROTEINS AND ENHANCES THEIR DNA-BINDING AND TRANSCRIPTIONAL ACTIVATION, EMBO journal, 15(18), 1996, pp. 4981-4991
High mobility group protein 1 (HMG1) is a nonhistone, chromatin-associ
ated nuclear protein with a proposed role in the regulation of eukaryo
tic gene expression, We show that HMG1 interacts with proteins encoded
by the HOX gene family by establishing protein-protein contacts betwe
en the HMG box domains and the HOX homeodomain, The functional role of
these interactions was studied using the transcriptional activity of
the human HOXD9 protein as a model, HMG1 enhances, in a dose-dependent
fashion, the sequence-specific DNA binding activity in vitro, and the
transcriptional activation in a co-transfection assay irt vivo, of th
e HOXD9 protein, Functional interaction between HMG1 and HOXD9 is depe
ndent on the DNA binding activity of the homeodomain, and requires the
HOXD9 transcriptional activation domain, HMG1 enhances activation by
HOXD9, but not by HOXD8, of the HOXD9-controlled element, Specific tar
get recognition and functional interaction with HMG1 can be transferre
d to HOXD8 by homeodomain swapping, We propose that HMG1-like proteins
might be general co-factors in HOX-mediated transcriptional activatio
n, which facilitate access of HOX proteins to specific DNA targets, an
d/or introduce architectural constraints in the assembly of HOX-contai
ning transcriptional complexes.