Lago Clara, Clerici Elena, Mizzi Luca, Colombo Lucia, Kater Martin M
Dipartimento di Scienze Biomolecolari e Biotecnologie, Università degli studi di Milano, via Celoria 26, 20133, Milan, Italy.
Gene. 2004 Nov 24;342(2):231-41. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2004.08.023.
Initiation of transcription mediated by RNA polymerase II requires a number of transcription factors among which TFIID is the major core promoter recognition factor. TFIID is composed of highly conserved factors which include the TATA-binding protein (TBP) and about 14 TBP-associated factors (TAFs). Since TAFs play important roles in transcription they have been extensively studied in organisms like yeast, Drosophila and human. Surprisingly, TAFs have been poorly characterized in plants. With the completion of the Arabidopsis genome sequence, it is possible to search for TAFs, since many of them have conserved amino acid sequences. Mining the genome of Arabidopsis for TAFs resulted in the identification of 18 putative Arabidopsis TAFs (AtTAFs). We have analyzed their protein structure and their genomic localisation. Expression profiling by RT-PCR showed that these TAFs are expressed in all parts of the plant which is in agreement with their general role in transcription. These analyses in combination with their evolutionary conservation with TAFs of other organisms are discussed.
由RNA聚合酶II介导的转录起始需要多种转录因子，其中TFIID是主要的核心启动子识别因子。TFIID由高度保守的因子组成，包括TATA结合蛋白（TBP）和约14个TBP相关因子（TAFs）。由于TAFs在转录中起重要作用，它们已在酵母、果蝇和人类等生物体中得到广泛研究。令人惊讶的是，TAFs在植物中的特征描述很少。随着拟南芥基因组序列的完成，由于其中许多具有保守的氨基酸序列，因此有可能搜索TAFs。在拟南芥基因组中挖掘TAFs导致鉴定出18个假定的拟南芥TAFs（AtTAFs）。我们分析了它们的蛋白质结构及其基因组定位。通过RT-PCR进行的表达谱分析表明，这些TAFs在植物的所有部位均有表达，这与其在转录中的一般作用一致。本文讨论了这些分析以及它们与其他生物体TAFs的进化保守性。
