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Transcription factor

Transcription factor glossary
  • gene expression – the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product such as a protein
  • transcription – the process of making messenger RNA (mRNA) from a DNA template by RNA polymerase
  • transcription factor – a protein that binds to DNA and regulates gene expression by promoting or suppressing transcription
  • transcriptional regulation – controlling the rate of gene transcription for example by helping or hindering RNA polymerase binding to DNA
  • upregulation, activation, or promotion – increase the rate of gene transcription
  • downregulation, repression, or suppression – decrease the rate of gene transcription
  • coactivator – a protein (or a small molecule) that works with transcription factors to increase the rate of gene transcription
  • corepressor – a protein (or a small molecule) that works with transcription factors to decrease the rate of gene transcription
  • response element – a specific sequence of DNA that a transcription factor binds to
Illustration of an activator

In molecular biology, a transcription factor (TF) (or sequence-specific DNA-binding factor) is a protein that controls the rate of transcription of genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA, by binding to a specific DNA sequence.[1][2] The function of TFs is to regulate—turn on and off—genes in order to make sure that they are expressed in the desired cells at the right time and in the right amount throughout the life of the cell and the organism. Groups of TFs function in a coordinated fashion to direct cell division, cell growth, and cell death throughout life; cell migration and organization (body plan) during embryonic development; and intermittently in response to signals from outside the cell, such as a hormone. There are approximately 1600 TFs in the human genome.[3][4][5] Transcription factors are members of the proteome as well as regulome.

TFs work alone or with other proteins in a complex, by promoting (as an activator), or blocking (as a repressor) the recruitment of RNA polymerase (the enzyme that performs the transcription of genetic information from DNA to RNA) to specific genes.[6][7][8]

A defining feature of TFs is that they contain at least one DNA-binding domain (DBD), which attaches to a specific sequence of DNA adjacent to the genes that they regulate.[9][10] TFs are grouped into classes based on their DBDs.[11][12] Other proteins such as coactivators, chromatin remodelers, histone acetyltransferases, histone deacetylases, kinases, and methylases are also essential to gene regulation, but lack DNA-binding domains, and therefore are not TFs.[13]

TFs are of interest in medicine because TF mutations can cause specific diseases, and medications can be potentially targeted toward them.

  1. ^ Latchman DS (December 1997). "Transcription factors: an overview". The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology. 29 (12): 1305–12. doi:10.1016/S1357-2725(97)00085-X. PMC 2002184. PMID 9570129.
  2. ^ Karin M (February 1990). "Too many transcription factors: positive and negative interactions". The New Biologist. 2 (2): 126–31. PMID 2128034.
  3. ^ Babu MM, Luscombe NM, Aravind L, Gerstein M, Teichmann SA (June 2004). "Structure and evolution of transcriptional regulatory networks" (PDF). Current Opinion in Structural Biology. 14 (3): 283–91. doi:10.1016/j.sbi.2004.05.004. PMID 15193307. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  4. ^ How Genes are Regulated: Transcription Factors on YouTube
  5. ^ Lambert S, Jolma A, Campitelli L, Pratyush Z, Das K, Yin Y, et al. (2018). "The Human Transcription Factors". Cell. 172 (4): 650–665. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2018.01.029. PMID 29425488. The final tally encompasses 1,639 known or likely human TFs.
  6. ^ Roeder RG (September 1996). "The role of general initiation factors in transcription by RNA polymerase II". Trends in Biochemical Sciences. 21 (9): 327–35. doi:10.1016/S0968-0004(96)10050-5. PMID 8870495.
  7. ^ Nikolov DB, Burley SK (January 1997). "RNA polymerase II transcription initiation: a structural view". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 94 (1): 15–22. Bibcode:1997PNAS...94...15N. doi:10.1073/pnas.94.1.15. PMC 33652. PMID 8990153.
  8. ^ Lee TI, Young RA (2000). "Transcription of eukaryotic protein-coding genes". Annual Review of Genetics. 34: 77–137. doi:10.1146/annurev.genet.34.1.77. PMID 11092823.
  9. ^ Mitchell PJ, Tjian R (July 1989). "Transcriptional regulation in mammalian cells by sequence-specific DNA binding proteins". Science. 245 (4916): 371–8. Bibcode:1989Sci...245..371M. doi:10.1126/science.2667136. PMID 2667136.
  10. ^ Ptashne M, Gann A (April 1997). "Transcriptional activation by recruitment". Nature. 386 (6625): 569–77. Bibcode:1997Natur.386..569P. doi:10.1038/386569a0. PMID 9121580. S2CID 6203915.
  11. ^ Jin J, Zhang H, Kong L, Gao G, Luo J (January 2014). "PlantTFDB 3.0: a portal for the functional and evolutionary study of plant transcription factors". Nucleic Acids Research. 42 (Database issue): D1182-7. doi:10.1093/nar/gkt1016. PMC 3965000. PMID 24174544.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Matys_2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Brivanlou AH, Darnell JE (February 2002). "Signal transduction and the control of gene expression". Science. 295 (5556): 813–8. Bibcode:2002Sci...295..813B. doi:10.1126/science.1066355. PMID 11823631. S2CID 14954195.

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