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The preferred binding sites of echinomycin on DNA can be determined by a method called "footprinting." A 32P end-labeled restriction fragment from pBR322 DNA is protected by binding to echinomycin, and cleaved by a synthetic DNA cleaving reagent, methidiumpropyl--EDTA . Fe(II); the DNA cleavage products are then subjected to high-resolution gel analyses. This method reveals that echinomycin has a binding site size of four base pairs. The strong binding sites for echinomycin contain the central two-base-pair sequence 5'-CG-3'. From an analysis of 15 echinomycin sites on 210 base pairs of DNA, key recognition elements for echinomycin are contained in the sequences (5'-3') ACGT and TCGT (A, adenine; C, cytosine; G, guanine; T, thymine).

Novobiocin has been shown to inhibit class III gene transcription from both chromatin and non-chromatin templates. Since novobiocin is a well characterized inhibitor of type II DNA topoisomerases, it has been postulated that a gyrase activity is necessary for transcription. Using DNase I footprinting, we show here that novobiocin inhibits the specific binding of polymerase III transcription factors TFIIIA and TFIIIC to the promoters of the 5S RNA and VA RNA genes, respectively. Concentrations of novobiocin employed were comparable to those necessary to inhibit HeLa topoisomerase II. In vitro transcription assays, performed under equivalent conditions, demonstrated that similar novobiocin concentrations were necessary for transcription inhibition. These results strongly suggest that novobiocin interferes with transcription by inhibiting specific protein-DNA interactions.

The DNA binding sites for the antitumor, antiviral, antibiotics chromomycin, mithramycin, and olivomycin on 70 base pairs of heterogeneous DNA have been determined by using the (methidiumpropyl-EDTA)iron(II) [MPE x Fe(II)] DNA cleavage inhibition pattern technique. Two DNA restriction fragments 117 and 168 base pairs in length containing the lactose operon promoter-operator region were prepared with complementary strands labeled with 32P at the 3' end. MPE x Fe(II) was allowed to partially cleave the restriction fragment preequilibrated with either chromomycin, mithramycin, or olivomycin in the presence of Mg2+. The preferred binding sites for chromomycin, mithramycin, and olivomycin in the presence of Mg2+ appear to be a minimum of 3 base pairs in size containing at least 2 contiguous dG x dC base pairs. Many binding sites are similar for the three antibiotics; chromomycin and olivomycin binding sites are nearly identical. The number of sites protected from MPE x Fe(II) cleavage increases as the concentration of drug is raised. For chromomycin/Mg2+, the preferred sites on the 70 base pairs of DNA examined are (in decreasing affinity) 3'-GGG, CGA greater than CCG, GCC greater than CGA, CCT greater than CTG-5'. The sequence 3'-CGA-5' has different affinities, indicating the importance of either flanking sequences or a nearly bound drug.