Tailor-made zinc-finger transcription factors activate FLO11 gene expression with phenotypic consequences in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

ABSTRACT: Cys2His2 zinc fingers are eukaryotic DNA-binding motifs, capable of distinguishing different DNA sequences, and are suitable for engineering artificial transcription factors. In this work, we used the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to study the ability of tailor-made zinc finger proteins to activate the expression of the FLO11 gene, with phenotypic consequences. Two three-finger peptides were identified, recognizing sites from the 5' UTR of the FLO11 gene with nanomolar DNA-binding affinity. The three-finger domains and their combined six-finger motif, recognizing an 18-bp site, were fused to the activation domain of VP16 or VP64. These transcription factor constructs retained their DNA-binding ability, with the six-finger ones being the highest in affinity. However, when expressed

SUBMITTER: Shieh JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1939876 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature