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Molecular and Cellular Biology, November 1998, p. 6584-6594, Vol. 18, No. 11
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Dorsal-Mediated Repression Requires the Formation of a Multiprotein Repression Complex at the Ventral Silencer

Scott A. Valentine,1,dagger Guoqing Chen,1 Tatiana Shandala,2 Joseph Fernandez,3 Sheenah Mische,3 Robert Saint,2 and Albert J. Courey1,*

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-15691; Department of Genetics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia2; and Rockefeller University Protein/DNA Technology Center, New York, New York 100213

Received 29 June 1998/Returned for modification 2 August 1998/Accepted 17 August 1998

Dorsal functions as both an activator and repressor of transcription to determine dorsoventral fate in the Drosophila melanogaster embryo. Repression by Dorsal requires the corepressor Groucho (Gro) and is mediated by silencers termed ventral repression regions (VRRs). A VRR in zerknüllt (zen) contains Dorsal binding sites as well as an essential element termed AT2. We have identified and purified an AT2 DNA binding activity in embryos and shown it to consist of cut (ct) and dead ringer (dri) gene products. Studies of loss-of-function mutations in ct and dri demonstrate that both genes are required for the activity of the AT2 site. Dorsal and Dri both bind Gro, acting cooperatively to recruit it to the DNA. Thus, ventral repression may require the formation of a multiprotein complex at the VRR. This complex includes Dorsal, Gro, and additional DNA binding proteins, which appear to convert Dorsal from an activator to a repressor by enabling it to recruit Gro to the template. By showing how binding site context can dramatically alter transcription factor function, these findings help clarify the mechanisms responsible for the regulatory specificity of transcription factors.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90095-1569. Phone: (310) 825-2530. Fax: (310) 206-4038. E-mail: courey{at}chem.ucla.edu.

dagger Present address: Novartis Biotechnology, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, November 1998, p. 6584-6594, Vol. 18, No. 11
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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