TATA-LESS PROMOTERS OF SOME ETS-FAMILY GENES ARE EFFICIENTLY REPRESSED BY WILD-TYPE P53

p53 has been reported to repress a number of TATA-containing promoters in transient transfection assays, TATA-less promoters are generally b elieved to be refractive to p53 repression. We report here that the TA TA-less promoters of Ets-family genes (Ets-1 and Ets-2) are efficientl y repressed by wild-type but not mutant p53 in transient co-transfecti on assays, Moreover, p53 was immunologically detected in protein compl exes formed on oligonucleotides from both the TATA-containing and TATA -less promoters, Our data suggest that p53 is involved in the regulati on of the expression of both promoter types, most probably by protein- protein interaction, A model for p53 function in promoter repression i s proposed.