Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow Print PDF (558K) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (3)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Commercial Re-use Guidelines
for Open Access NAR Content
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Carr, A.
Right arrow Articles by Biggin, M. D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Carr, A.
Right arrow Articles by Biggin, M. D.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Nucleic Acids Research, 2000, Vol. 28, No. 14 2839-2846
© 2000 Oxford University Press

Accessibility of transcriptionally inactive genes is specifically reduced at homeoprotein-DNA binding sites in Drosophila

Alan Carr and Mark D. Biggin*

Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, PO Box 208114, 260 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520-8114, USA

We showed previously that homeoproteins bind to multiple DNA sites throughout the length of most genes in Drosophila embryos. Based on a compari­son of in vivo and in vitro DNA binding specificities, we suggested that homeoprotein binding sites on actively transcribed genes are largely accessible, whereas the binding of homeoproteins to inactive and poorly transcribed genes may be significantly inhibited at most sites, perhaps by chromatin structure. To test this model, we have measured the accessibility of restriction enzyme sites in a number of genes in isolated nuclei. Surprisingly, our data indicate that there is no difference in the overall accessibility of sites for several restriction enzymes on active versus inactive genes. However, consistent with our model, restriction enzyme recognition sequences that overlap with homeoprotein binding sites are less accessible on inactive genes than they are on active genes. We propose that transcriptional activation in all animals may involve a localized increase in accessibility at the AT-rich regions bound by homeo­proteins and perhaps at a few other regions, rather than a generalized effect on all sites throughout a gene.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed at present address: Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Mailstop 84-171, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Tel: +1 510 486 7606; Fax: +1 510 486 4229; Email: mdbiggin@lbl.gov


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.