Wehn Amy, Campbell Gerard
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
Genetics. 2006 Jun;173(2):849-61. doi: 10.1534/genetics.105.055012. Epub 2006 Apr 19.
In eukaryotes, the ability of DNA-binding proteins to act as transcriptional repressors often requires that they recruit accessory proteins, known as corepressors, which provide the activity responsible for silencing transcription. Several of these factors have been identified, including the Groucho (Gro) and Atrophin (Atro) proteins in Drosophila. Here we demonstrate strong genetic interactions between gro and Atro and also with mutations in a third gene, scribbler (sbb), which encodes a nuclear protein of unknown function. We show that mutations in Atro and Sbb have similar phenotypes, including upregulation of the same genes in imaginal discs, which suggests that Sbb cooperates with Atro to provide repressive activity. Comparison of gro and Atro/sbb mutant phenotypes suggests that they do not function together, but instead that they may interact with the same transcription factors, including Engrailed and C15, to provide these proteins with maximal repressive activity.
在真核生物中，DNA结合蛋白作为转录抑制因子发挥作用的能力通常需要它们招募辅助蛋白，即共抑制因子，这些共抑制因子提供导致转录沉默的活性。已经鉴定出其中几种因子，包括果蝇中的Groucho（Gro）和Atrophin（Atro）蛋白。在这里，我们证明了gro和Atro之间以及与第三个基因scribbler（sbb）的突变之间存在强烈的遗传相互作用，sbb编码一种功能未知的核蛋白。我们表明，Atro和Sbb中的突变具有相似的表型，包括成虫盘相同基因的上调，这表明Sbb与Atro协同提供抑制活性。gro和Atro/sbb突变体表型的比较表明，它们并非共同发挥作用，而是可能与相同的转录因子相互作用，包括Engrailed和C15，为这些蛋白提供最大的抑制活性。
