DNA-binding site for two skeletal actin promoter factors is important for expression in muscle cells.

Two nuclear factors bind to the same site in the chicken skeletal actin promoter. Mutations in the footprint sequence which eliminate detectable binding decrease expression in transfected skeletal muscle cells by a factor of 25 to 50 and do not elevate the low expression in nonmuscle cells. These results show that the factor-binding site contributes to the activation of expression in muscle cells and that it alone does not contribute significantly to repress expression in nonmuscle cells.