DNA bending is induced by a transcription factor that interacts with the human c-FOS and alpha-actin promoters

Conserved sequence elements in the human cardiac and skeletal alpha-actin promoters that contain the CC(A + T-rich)6GG motif have been shown to regulate transcription of these genes. A similar sequence is found in the serum response element of the human c-FOS gene. In this study, we demonstrate that indistinguishable proteins bind to each of five CC(A + T-rich)6GG elements examined in the human cardiac and skeletal alpha-actin promoters and the c-FOS serum response element. Using electrophoretic techniques, we show that these factors induce a stable bend in the DNA upon binding, and the bend center is shown to coincide with the CC(A + T-rich)6GG element. In addition, the ability to bend DNA is retained by a small proteolytic fragment of the protein, suggesting that the DNA-binding domain of the protein is resistant to proteases and is sufficient to bend DNA.