Activating protein factor binds in vitro to upstream control sequences in heat shock gene chromatin

DNA sequences, important for the control of Drosophila heat shock gene expression, are packaged in chromatin in a nuclease hypersensitive configuration. Recently, two protein-binding (exonuclease-resistant) sites which cover the TATA box sequence and an upstream control element were shown to occur in vivo amidst the 5' terminal hypersensitive regions of several heat shock genes. Protein-binding at the TATA box is independent of heat shock, but the binding at the upstream element is heat shock dependent, and it was proposed that a heat shock activator protein, HAP, positively regulates the genes. Here, I report the detection of HAP activity in heat shocked cell extracts by reconstituting specific binding to hsp82 gene chromatin in vitro. Inhibition of the binding by free DNA from the 5' region of heat shock genes implies a coordinate regulation of the gene family through HAP interaction with the upstream heat shock consensus sequence. Furthermore, the special ease of induction of the hsp82 gene over other heat shock genes can be explained in molecular terms by the higher affinity of HAP for the hsp82 binding site, which contains a 28 base sequence with almost perfect dyad symmetry, GAAGCCTCTAGAAG/TTTCTAGAGACTTC.     

中国明对虾卵黄蛋白原基因启动子克隆与分析

为了探明中国明对虾卵黄蛋白原基因启动子表达调控机制,利用DNA步移法克隆了中国明对虾卵黄蛋白原基因启动子及其上游调控序列,总长1 100bp.分析表明,在基因转录起始位点上游-30～-24bp处有1个TATA box,未发现有CAAT box和GC box.同时,在上游调控区还存在有多个可能影响启动子转录活性的顺式作用元件,如NF-κB,YY1和SP1等转录因子结合位点.这些结果为深入研究中国明对虾卵黄蛋白积累及卵子发生过程奠定了基础.     

灵长类等TATA框折叠结构特征比较

通过对灵长类，啮齿类，无脊椎类三个物种各40个基因部分启动子系列的折叠结构进行分析研究，结果表明不同物种基因的TATA框在折叠结构模型中所表现的茎环结构特征的分布频率存在明显差异．     

Effect of novobiocin on initiation of DNA replication in Bacillus subtilis.

The initiation of DNA replication of small replicons in vitro involves conformational changes in the whole DNA molecule or in the region near to the replication origin. One striking finding has been the role of DNA gyrase (that is, the necessity for supercoiled structure) in the initial stage of ColE1 replication in vitro. However, little is known about the effect of gyrase on the initiation of replication of bacterial chromosomes in vivo. We have constructed a map of cleavage sites of restriction enzymes at the region of the origin of replication of the Bacillus subtilis chromosome (accompanying paper). This has now enabled us to examine the effect of novobiocin, a selective inhibitor of DNA gyrase, on the replication of the specific chromosomal segments near the origin and to seek a possible role for the gyrase in the initiation of chromosomal replication. We have found that only a limited segment of the chromosome at the origin region was replicated in the presence of novobiocin. This effect allowed us to locate the site of the origin of replication to within a DNA fragment of molecular weight 3.4 x 10(6).