Abstract
Many transcriptional activators in prokaryotes are known to bind near a promoter and contact RNA polymerase1–5, but it is not clear whether a protein–protein contact between an activator and RNA polymerase is enough to activate gene transcription. Here we show that contact between a DNA-bound protein and a heterologous protein domain fused to RNA polymerase can elicit transcriptional activation; moreover, the strength of this engineered protein–protein interaction determines the amount of gene activation. Our results indicate that an arbitrary interaction between a DNA-bound protein and RNA polymerase can activate transcription. We also find that when the DNA-bound 'activator' makes contact with two different components of the polymerase, the effect of these two interactions on transcription is synergistic.
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Dove, S., Joung, J. & Hochschild, A. Activation of prokaryotic transcription through arbitrary protein–protein contacts. Nature 386, 627–630 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/386627a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/386627a0
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