NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE TRANSCRIPTIONAL CONTROL DURING CELL-PROLIFERATION (REVIEW)

A significant amount of experimental evidence has demonstrated that pr ogression of the cell cycle in mammalian cells is associated with peri odic transcriptional activation/ repression of growth-regulatory genes . We summarize our current knowledge and views on the role of the crit ical cell cycle regulators such as the retinoblastoma proteins in tran scription repression and their functional connections with various dif ferent transcription factors. In addition, we discuss the role of onco genes such as TIF1 alpha, PML and RFL which belong to a characteristic subgroup of RING finger proteins that contain the RING finger (C3HC4 zinc finger) the B-boxes and a putative coiled-coil (RBCC configuratio n) as mediators of transcription repression.