McCarty D R, Hattori T, Carson C B, Vasil V, Lazar M, Vasil I K
Vegetable Crops Department, University of Florida, Gainesville 32611.
Cell. 1991 Sep 6;66(5):895-905. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(91)90436-3.
The Viviparous-1 (Vp1) gene of maize is specifically required for expression of the maturation program in seed development. We show that Vp1 encodes a 73,335 dalton protein with no detectable homology to known proteins. An acidic transcriptional activation sequence was identified by fusion to the GAL4 DNA-binding domain. Expression of VP1 in maize protoplasts resulted in strong activation (greater than 130-fold) of a reporter gene fused to the promoter of a presumptive target gene. The acidic domain in VP1 was essential for transactivation and could be functionally replaced by the activator sequence of the herpes simplex virus VP16 protein. Our results indicate that VP1 is a novel transcription factor possibly involved in potentiation of a seed-specific hormone response.
玉米的胎生-1（Vp1）基因是种子发育过程中成熟程序表达所特需的。我们发现Vp1编码一种73335道尔顿的蛋白质，与已知蛋白质无明显同源性。通过与GAL4 DNA结合结构域融合鉴定出一个酸性转录激活序列。在玉米原生质体中表达VP1导致与假定靶基因启动子融合的报告基因强烈激活（超过130倍）。VP1中的酸性结构域对反式激活至关重要，并且可以被单纯疱疹病毒VP16蛋白的激活序列在功能上替代。我们的结果表明，VP1是一种新型转录因子，可能参与种子特异性激素反应的增强。
