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Myocardin is a master regulator of smooth muscle gene expression
- Publication Year :
- 2003
- Publisher :
- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries, 2003.
-
Abstract
- Virtually all smooth muscle genes analyzed to date contain two or more essential binding sites for serum response factor (SRF) in their control regions. Because SRF is expressed in a wide range of cell types, it alone cannot account for smooth muscle-specific gene expression. We show that myocardin, a cardiac muscle- and smooth muscle-specific transcriptional coactivator of SRF, can activate smooth muscle gene expression in a variety of nonmuscle cell types via its association with SRF. Homodimerization of myocardin is required for maximal transcriptional activity and provides a mechanism for cooperative activation of smooth muscle genes by SRF–myocardin complexes bound to different SRF binding sites. These findings identify myocardin as a master regulator of smooth muscle gene expression and explain how SRF conveys smooth muscle specificity to its target genes.
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........0fc0e9bab909f64fa8b477e3a3e746b6
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.17615/c913-9m10