Activation of the c-fos SRE through SAP-1a

TCFs, which are members of the Ets family of transcription factors, are recruited to the Serum Response Element (SRE) in the c-fos promoter by SRF. These Ets proteins, which are substrates for the MAP kinases, are direct targets of the Ras/MAP kinase signal transduction pathway. In this paper, we demonstrate that one of the TCFs, SAP-1a, displays a significant level of autonomous binding to the SRE Ets box. In contrast to previous observations, deletion of the SRF binding domain did not modulate the autonomous binding of SAP-1a. Also, the autonomous binding was not modulated by the phosphorylation of SAP-1a by MAP kinases. The autonomous binding was also detected in live cells: transfected SAP-1a was able to restore the response of a CArG-less SRE in PC12 cells. The response occurred in the absence of SRF recruitment since a mutant of SAP-1a in which the B-box, a domain required for interaction with SRF, had been deleted was still able to transactivate the CArG-less SRE. The transactivation was repressed by a Ras transdominant negative mutant, indicating the involvement of the Ras/MAP kinase pathway. Taken together, these data demonstrate that SAP-1a is capable of binding to the c-fos SRE in the absence of SRF.