Se. Smith et al., DIFFERENT TRE-RELATED ELEMENTS ARE DISTINGUISHED BY SETS OF DNA-BINDING PROTEINS WITH OVERLAPPING SEQUENCE SPECIFICITY, Nucleic acids research, 21(7), 1993, pp. 1581-1585
Several promoter elements with sequence similarity to the prototype TP
A-responsive element (TRE) were compared by mobility-shift analyses. A
ctivities within whole cell extracts were identified that bind to the
TRE-like elements in the collagenase, the somatostatin, and the c-jun
promoters. The corresponding factors appeared to differ in their degre
e of selectivity for these TRE-like sequences. One protein species bou
nd equally well to all TREs. In addition, a subset of specific activit
ies recognised only the somatostatin and the c-jun-derived element and
one DNA - protein complex had exclusive specificity for the TRE prese
nt in the c-jun promoter. By antibody 'supershift' assays some of the
protein components of the specific complexes were identified as CREB-
and ATF-related products. Based on these data we postulate that bZip p
rotein dimers differ in their ability to tolerate variations from the
canonical TRE sequence. We propose that TRE-like promoter elements are
distinguished by this ability to bind to different subsets of a famil
y of related transcription factors.