Related topics: stem cells
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
Researchers turn one form of adult mouse cell directly into another
Biology /
Aug 27, 2008 |
4.9 / 5 (40) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In a feat of biological prestidigitation likely to turn the field of regenerative medicine on its head, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) co-director Doug Melton and post doctoral fellow ...
Researchers revise long-held theory of fruit-fly development
Dec 17, 2009 |
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For decades, science texts have told a simple and straightforward story about a particular protein—a transcription factor—that helps the embryo of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, pattern tissues in a m ...
Marking of tissue-specific crucial in embryonic stem cells to ensure proper function
Dec 16, 2009 |
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Tissue-specific genes, thought to be dormant or not marked for activation in embryonic stem cells, are indeed marked by transcription factors, with proper marking potentially crucial for the function of tissues derived from ...
Transcription factors guide differences in human and chimp brain function
Dec 07, 2009 |
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Humans share at least 97 percent of their genes with chimpanzees, but, as a new study of transcription factors makes clear, what you have in your genome may be less important than how you use it.
Potential new 'twist' in breast cancer detection
Dec 04, 2009 |
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Working with mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins publishing in the December issue of Neoplasia have shown that a protein made by a gene called "Twist" may be the proverbial red flag that can accurately distinguish stem cells ...
Researchers identify gene that spurs deadly brain cancer
Dec 03, 2009 |
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Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have identified a new factor that is necessary for the development of many forms of medulloblastoma, the most common type of malignant childhood brain cancer.
New source discovered for the generation of nerve cells in the brain
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Dec 01, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (6) |
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The research group of Professor Magdalena Gotz of Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munich (Germany) has made a significant advance in understanding regeneration processes in the brain. The researchers ...
'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 ...
'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 ...
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 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 ...
