THE CARBOXY-TERMINAL REGION OF ADENOVIRUS E1A ACTIVATES TRANSCRIPTIONTHROUGH TARGETING OF A C-TERMINAL BINDING-PROTEIN HISTONE DEACETYLASECOMPLEX

Binding of the C-terminal binding protein, CtBP, to the adenovirus E1A moiety of a Gal4-E1A fusion protein abolishes conserved region (CR) 1 -dependent transcription activation. In contrast, a non-promoter targe ted E1A peptide, capable of binding CtBP, can induce transcription fro m the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) promoter, CtBP is show n here to bind the histone deacetylase HDAC1, suggesting that a promot er targeted CtBP-HDAC1 complex can silence transcription from the PCNA promoter through a deacetylation mechanism. Expression of the CtBP bi nding domain of E1A is sufficient to alleviate repression, possibly du e to the displacement of the CtBP-HDAC1 complex from the promoter. (C) 1998 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.