真核转录抑制因子调控机制的研究进展

转录调控是分子生物学领域的研究热点,其中转录抑制因子通过与特异蛋白因子或染色体部位结合来阻碍基因的活化,对转录进行负调控。按照作用距离或抑制作用的直接与间接性来划分其调控机制,是过去比较主流的分类标准。但人们逐渐发现,许多转录抑制因子很难用这种标准进行确切的分类,于是又提出了一种新的、更加科学的分类方法：按照抑制作用是通过与基本转录复合物直接结合来发挥作用,通过转录激活因子间的相互作用来实现,还是通过改变染色体结构来完成,将转录抑制因子分为三类。     

Biological activity of the mammalian RAP genes in yeast.

We have screened expression libraries for mammalian cDNAs capable of suppressing defects in ras1- Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Both the RAP1A and RAP1B genes were identified in this manner. They suppress defects in cell morphology and sporulation, although not conjugation. In contrast, RAP genes do not suppress phenotypes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that are deficient in RAS. Indeed, expression of RAP1A appears to antagonize the activated S. cerevisiae RAS2val19 gene. These results indicate that RAP proteins can interact with RAS targets, sometimes productively, sometimes nonproductively.     

Development of a repressible mycobacterial promoter system based on two transcriptional repressors

Tightly regulated gene expression systems represent invaluable tools for studying gene function and for the validation of drug targets in bacteria. While several regulated bacterial promoters have been characterized, few of them have been successfully used in mycobacteria. In this article we describe the development of a novel repressible promoter system effective in both fast- and slow-growing mycobacteria based on two chromosomally encoded repressors, dependent on tetracycline (TetR) and pristinamycin (Pip), respectively. This uniqueness results in high versatility and stringency. Using this method we were able to obtain an ftsZ conditional mutant in Mycobacterium smegmatis and a fadD32 conditional mutant in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, confirming their essentiality for bacterial growth in vitro. This repressible promoter system could also be exploited to regulate gene expression during M. tuberculosis intracellular growth.