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Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes: A Functional Genomics Tool for the Study of Positive-strand RNA Viruses
Published on: December 29, 2015
Epstein-Barr virus small RNA (EBER) genes: unique transcription units that combine RNA polymerase II and III promoter
1Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, New Haven, Connecticut 06510.
Abstract:
The Epstein-Barr virus-encoded small RNA (EBER) genes appear to comprise an interesting subset of class III genes different from any previously identified, including U6 and 7SK. EBER genes have functional A and B box intragenic control regions. In addition, they contain three upstream elements that together stimulate in vivo expression 50-fold and resemble sites associated with typical class II promoters. DNAase I footprinting analyses using purified proteins or oligonucleotide competition demonstrate that nucleotides -40 to -55 bind activating transcription factor (ATF) or a related protein, while nucleotides -56 to -77 bind Sp1 protein or a related protein. The element between positions -23 and -28 resembles a TATA box. EBERs are unusual RNA polymerase III transcripts shown to be controlled by ATF- and Sp1-like promoter elements, suggesting mechanisms for their high level expression in EBV-transformed lymphocytes.
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