PMID:7911971

Citation	Pellerin, I, Schnabel, C, Catron, KM and Abate, C (1994) Hox proteins have different affinities for a consensus DNA site that correlate with the positions of their genes on the hox cluster. Mol. Cell. Biol. 14:4532-45
Abstract	The hox genes, members of a family of essential developmental regulators, have the intriguing property that their expression in the developing murine embryo is colinear with their chromosomal organization. Members of the hox gene family share a conserved DNA binding domain, termed the homeodomain, which mediates interactions of Hox proteins with DNA regulatory elements in the transcriptional control regions of target genes. In this study, we characterized the DNA binding properties of five representative members of the Hox family: HoxA5, HoxB4, HoxA7, HoxC8, and HoxB1. To facilitate a comparative analysis of their DNA binding properties, we produced the homeodomain regions of these Hox proteins in Escherichia coli and obtained highly purified polypeptides. We showed that these Hox proteins interact in vitro with a common consensus DNA site that contains the motif (C/G)TAATTG. We further showed that the Hox proteins recognize the consensus DNA site in vivo, as determined by their ability to activate transcription through this site in transient transfection assays. Although they interact optimally with the consensus DNA site, the Hox proteins exhibit subtle, but distinct, preferences for DNA sites that contain variations of the nucleotides within the consensus motif. In addition to their modest differences in DNA binding specificities, the Hox proteins also vary in their relative affinities for DNA. Intriguingly, their relative affinities correlate with the positions of their respective genes on the hox cluster. These findings suggest that subtle differences in DNA binding specificity combined with differences in DNA binding affinity constitute features of the "Hox code" that contribute to the selective functions of Hox proteins during murine embryogenesis.
Links	PubMed PMC358825
Keywords	Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Base Sequence; Binding Sites; Consensus Sequence; Conserved Sequence; DNA/genetics; DNA/metabolism; DNA-Binding Proteins/chemistry; DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics; DNA-Binding Proteins/metabolism; Drosophila/genetics; Embryo, Mammalian; Embryo, Nonmammalian; Gene Expression; Genes, Homeobox; Mice; Molecular Sequence Data; Multigene Family; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Protein Structure, Secondary; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
edit table

Annotations

Gene product	Qualifier	GO ID	GO term name	Evidence Code	with/from	Aspect	Notes	Status
edit table

References

See Help:References for how to manage references in GONUTS.