Transcription factor
hideIn the field of molecular biology, a transcription factor (sometimes called a sequence-specific DNA binding factor) is a protein that binds to specific DNA sequences and thereby controls the transfer (or transcription) of genetic information from DNA to mRNA. Transcription factors perform this function 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 which performs the transcription of genetic information from DNA to RNA) to specific genes.
A defining feature of transcription factors is that they contain one or more DNA binding domains (DBDs) which attach to specific sequences of DNA adjacent to the genes that they regulate. Additional proteins such as coactivators, chromatin remodelers, histone acetylases, deacetylases, kinases, and methylases, while also playing crucial roles in gene regulation, lack DNA binding domains, and therefore are not classified as transcription factors.
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News tagged with transcription factors
'Cross-talk' mechanism contributes to colorectal cancer
Nov 13, 2009 |
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Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health have identified a molecular mechanism that allows two powerful signaling pathways to interact and begin a process leading to colorectal ...
Deciphering the regulatory code: Scientists take new approach to predict gene expression
Nov 04, 2009 |
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Embryonic development is like a well-organised building project, with the embryo's DNA serving as the blueprint from which all construction details are derived. Cells carry out different functions according ...
'Moonlighting' molecules discovered
Oct 29, 2009 |
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Since the completion of the human genome sequence, a question has baffled researchers studying gene control: How is it that humans, being far more complex than the lowly yeast, do not proportionally contain in our genome ...
Protein is linked to lung cancer development
Oct 22, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A protein that normally helps defend cells from infection can play a critical role in the development of lung cancer, according to MIT cancer biologists.
Genetics of patterning the cerebral cortex
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 13, 2009 |
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The cerebral cortex, the largest and most complex component of the brain, is unique to mammals and alone has evolved human specializations. Although at first all stem cells in charge of building the cerebral ...
Prolonged stress sparks ER to release calcium stores and induce cell death in aging-related diseases
Sep 14, 2009 |
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Li et al. explain how prolonged stress sparks the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to release its calcium stores, inducing cells to undergo apoptosis in several aging-related diseases.The study will appear in the September 21, ...
Researchers find that protein believed to protect against cancer has a Mr. Hyde side
Sep 03, 2009 |
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In a biological rendition of fiction's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, researchers from the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida and Harvard Medical School have found that a protein thought to protect against cancer development ...
Scientists find key to strengthening immune response to chronic infection
Aug 06, 2009 |
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A team of researchers from The Wistar Institute has identified a protein that could serve as a target for reprogramming immune system cells exhausted by exposure to chronic viral infection into more effective "soldiers" against ...
Discovery of a mechanism controlling the fate of hematopoietic stem cells
Jul 30, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Hematopoietic stem cells are capable of manufacturing all types of blood cells. But which factors influence the production of a specific type of cell? Until now, it was thought that this was ...
Iron-binding drug could help diabetics heal stubborn wounds
Jul 27, 2009 |
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A drug used to remove iron from the body could help doctors fight one of diabetes' cruelest complications: poor wound healing, which can lead to amputation of patients' toes, feet and even legs.
Scientists identify gene for deadly inherited lung disease
Jun 04, 2009 |
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A rare, deadly developmental disorder of the lungs called alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins (ACD/MPV) that usually kills the infants born with it within the first month of life results from ...
Scientists identify key factors in heart cell creation
Apr 26, 2009 |
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Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease have identified for the first time key genetic factors that drive the process of generating new heart cells. The discovery, reported in the current ...
Major advance in cell reprogramming technology
Apr 23, 2009 |
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In a paper publishing online April 23rd in Cell Stem Cell, a Cell Press journal, Dr. Sheng Ding and colleagues from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, report an important step forward in the race to mak ...
'Fuzzy logic' reveals cells' inner workings
Apr 03, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Living cells are bombarded with messages from the outside world -- hormones and other chemicals tell them to grow, migrate, die or do nothing. Inside the cell, complex signaling networks interpret these cues ...
Protein protects neurons in brain from damage due to inflammation
Apr 02, 2009 |
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A research team from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla has identified a protein in the brain of mice that protects neurons from excessive ...
