Tamkun J W, Deuring R, Scott M P, Kissinger M, Pattatucci A M, Kaufman T C, Kennison J A
Department of Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz 95064.
Cell. 1992 Feb 7;68(3):561-72. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(92)90191-e.
The brahma (brm) gene is required for the activation of multiple homeotic genes in Drosophila. Loss-of-function brm mutations suppress mutations in Polycomb, a repressor of homeotic genes, and cause developmental defects similar to those arising from insufficient expression of the homeotic genes of the Antennapedia and Bithorax complexes. The brm gene encodes a 1638 residue protein that is similar to SNF2/SWI2, a protein involved in transcriptional activation in yeast, suggesting possible models for the role of brm in the transcriptional activation of homeotic genes. In addition, both brm and SNF2 contain a 77 amino acid motif that is found in other Drosophila, yeast, and human regulatory proteins and may be characteristic of a new family of regulatory proteins.
果蝇中，激活多个同源异型基因需要brahma（brm）基因。功能缺失的brm突变会抑制同源异型基因的阻遏物多梳蛋白（Polycomb）的突变，并导致与触角足复合体和双胸复合体同源异型基因表达不足所产生的发育缺陷相似的缺陷。brm基因编码一种由1638个氨基酸残基组成的蛋白质，该蛋白质与酵母中参与转录激活的SNF2/SWI2蛋白相似，这为brm在同源异型基因转录激活中的作用提供了可能的模型。此外，brm和SNF2都含有一个77个氨基酸的基序，该基序也存在于其他果蝇、酵母和人类的调控蛋白中，可能是一个新的调控蛋白家族的特征。
