Wang L H, Tsai S Y, Cook R G, Beattie W G, Tsai M J, O'Malley B W
Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030.
Nature. 1989 Jul 13;340(6229):163-6. doi: 10.1038/340163a0.
The COUP (chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter) transcription factor (COUP-TF) exists in a number of different tissues and is essential for expression of the chicken ovalbumin gene. It binds to the ovalbumin promoter and, in conjunction with a second protein (S300-II), stimulates initiation of transcription in vitro. COUP-TF also binds specifically to the rat insulin promoter element, although the two binding sites share little sequence similarity. Here we report the isolation of a human complementary DNA clone encoding COUP-TF. Comparison of the amino-acid sequence of COUP-TF with known sequences reveals that it is a member of the steroid/thyroid hormone/vitamin receptor superfamily. Consequently, it is the first member of this family that has been shown to function in a cell-free transcription system. We conclude that this superfamily of gene regulators contains proteins which bind and activate distal promoter elements of eukaryotic genes.
COUP（鸡卵清蛋白上游启动子）转录因子（COUP-TF）存在于多种不同组织中，对鸡卵清蛋白基因的表达至关重要。它与卵清蛋白启动子结合，并与第二种蛋白质（S300-II）一起在体外刺激转录起始。COUP-TF也特异性地结合大鼠胰岛素启动子元件，尽管这两个结合位点的序列相似性很小。在此，我们报告了一个编码COUP-TF的人类互补DNA克隆的分离。将COUP-TF的氨基酸序列与已知序列进行比较，发现它是类固醇/甲状腺激素/维生素受体超家族的成员。因此，它是该家族中第一个被证明在无细胞转录系统中发挥作用的成员。我们得出结论，这个基因调节因子超家族包含能结合并激活真核基因远端启动子元件的蛋白质。
