Transcription factor ATF cDNA clones: an extensive family of leucine zipper proteins able to selectively form DNA-binding heterodimers

An activating transcription factor (ATF)-binding site (consensus sequence 5'-GTGACGTACAG-3') is a promoter element present in a wide variety of viral and cellular genes. The two best-characterized classes of genes that contain ATF sites are E1A-inducible adenoviral genes and cAMP-inducible cellular genes. Here, we report the isolation of eight ATF cDNA clones, each of which is derived from a separate gene. All ATF cDNA clones examined contain a leucine zipper motif and are significantly similar to one another only within this region. The leucine zipper region of ATF proteins is also similar to that of the AP-1/c-jun family of transcription factors, whose DNA-binding site differs from the ATF-binding site at a single position. DNA binding studies reveal two mechanisms for generating further diversity from the ATF proteins. First, some, but not all, combinations of ATF proteins form heterodimers that efficiently bind to DNA. Second, although all ATF proteins bind to the ATF site, their precise interactions with DNA differ from one another, as evidenced by methylation interference analysis. Our results help to explain how a single promoter element, an ATF site, can be present in a wide variety of promoters.

A family of immunologically related transcription factors that includes multiple forms of ATF and AP-1

ATF is a cellular transcription factor involved in the regulation of multiple adenovirus E1A- and cellular cAMP-inducible promoters. Using DNA affinity chromatography, we have purified ATF and found that a series of polypeptides copurify in a sequence-specific manner. We demonstrate that these polypeptides represent a family of proteins that are related by DNA-binding specificity and by immunological cross-reactivity. This family includes the transcription factor AP-1, whose recognition sequence, GTGAGTCAA, differs from the ATF consensus, GTGACGTCAA, by the absence of a cytosine residue. Our results further indicate that there are multiple forms of both ATF and AP-1. The immunological cross-reactivity and related DNA-binding specificities suggest that ATF and AP-1 contain similar amino acid sequences and may have originated from a common gene.

Analysis of the role of the transcription factor ATF in the assembly of a functional preinitiation complex

In the accompanying paper (Horikoshi et al., 1988) the interaction between ATF and the general transcription initiation factors was analyzed by DNAase I footprinting experiments. Here, we use transcription assays to investigate the role of ATF in the assembly of a functional preinitiation complex. Addition of an oligonucleotide containing an ATF binding site inhibits E4 transcription by sequestering ATF. However, following preincubation of the E4 promoter in the nuclear extract, transcription is refractory to inhibition by the ATF oligonucleotide. Formation of this oligonucleotide-refractory complex occurs at an early stage in the overall transcription initiation reaction and is dependent upon ATF and the general transcription factors RNA polymerase II, TFIIB, and TFIID. This latter result suggests that the assembly and maintenance of a functional preinitiation complex involves cooperative interactions among the various transcription factors. The general transcription factor TFIIE, although required for transcriptional activity, is not involved in the assembly of an ATF oligonucleotide-refractory complex. Our results support the possibility that ATF may be required only transiently for assembly of a functional preinitiation complex.