Ab. Firulli et al., TRIPLEX FORMING ABILITY OF A C-MYC PROMOTER ELEMENT PREDICTS PROMOTERSTRENGTH, Archives of biochemistry and biophysics, 310(1), 1994, pp. 236-242
Most transcription factors are believed to bind promoter elements in t
he B-DNA conformation, wherein linear sequence determines specificity.
However, there are promoter elements that can form complex structures
such as intramolecular triplexes, and these structures may participat
e in the activity of these promoter elements. We have previously shown
that a c-myc promoter element, termed the nuclease-sensitive element
or NSE, can form tandem intramolecular triplexes of the H-DNA type and
has a repeating sequence motif (ACCCTCCCC)4. The NSE was mutated and
examined for transcriptional activity and for intra- and intermolecula
r triplex forming ability. The transcriptional activity of mutant NSEs
can be predicted by the element's ability to form H-DNA and not by re
peat number, position, or the number of mutant base pairs. DNA may the
refore be a dynamic participant in the transcription of the c-myc gene
. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.