Basal Transcription Factor Information

I'm slowly trying to build a WWW database for information about the eukaryotic transcription machinery. It's intended primarily for people in the field, but may be useful to others who want to find out about gene expression. Right now there's not much, but I'm working on it. I currently have pages for most of the basal factors, including links for searching GenBank and MEDLINE for sequences and articles. I'm hoping to add some review material about each factor and how they interact. I would be interested in posting papers and/or discussion (an interactive on-line journal essentially) if enough people are willing to contribute. Please feel free to email suggestions to:

Steve Buratowski
Harvard Medical School
steveb@hms.harvard.edu

Basal Transcription Factors

The basal transcription factors are typically defined as the minimal complement of proteins necessary to reconstitute accurate transcription from a minimal promoter (such as a TATA element or initiator sequence). They are distinct from the regulatory transcription factors, which bind to sequences farther away from the initiation site and serve to modulate levels of transcription. This regulation presumably occurs through interactions between the regulatory and basal transcription factors, although there is a great deal of controversy about the identity of the regulatory factors' "target(s)"

The basal transcription complex assembles through an extensive series of protein-protein interactions. Although the basal factors can assemble on the promoter in a step-wise manner in vitro, there is some evidence that many of the factor interactions can occur in the absence of DNA and that some of the factors may pre-assemble into a "holoenzyme".

Basal Transcription Factor Pages

TFIIA
TFIIB
TFIID/TATA Binding Protein
TFIIE
TFIIF
TFIIH
TFIIK (CTD kinase) Not up yet.

Basal Transcription Factor Information

Basal Transcription Factors

Basal Transcription Factor Pages

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