Increase in specific DNA binding by carboxyl truncation suggests a mechanism for activation of Myb

Oncogenic forms of the c-myb protein (Myb) often exhibit amino-terminal and/or carboxyl-terminal truncations. When the transcriptional activity of these proteins was examined it was found that carboxyl-truncated Myb is more effective as a transcriptional activator than full-length or amino-truncated Myb. In order to determine the effect of such truncations on sequence-specific DNA binding, we synthesized murine Myb in vitro and assessed DNA binding by using a mobility-shift assay. Compared with the full-length protein no difference in binding was observed following deletion of the amino terminus, despite the removal of much of the first repeat of the DNA-binding domain. However, the specific DNA-binding capacity of carboxyl-truncated Myb was 4-6 times greater than that of the full-length protein; moreover, DNA binding was independent of a 'leucine zipper' motif present in Myb. These observations suggest that the increased transforming and transactivating potential of carboxyl-truncated Myb is due, at least in part, to increased sequence-specific DNA binding.