Affiliations: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University
of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA | DNA Section, Connecticut State Police Forensic
Sciences Lab, Meriden, CT 06451, USA | Packard Biosciences, Meriden, CT 06451, USA | Department of Biology, Boise State University, Boise,
ID, USA | Current address: Department of Microbiology and
Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599,
USA
Abstract: The Drosophila H2A-H2B histone spacer, a small region that functions
as a bidirectional promoter for the gene pair, was used as a test sequence for
generation of a computationally derived organizational model of transcription
factor (TF) binding sites. Expression studies of the spacer revealed that it
contains the necessary sequences to confer replication-dependent transcription
in partially synchronized cells in culture. Informatics analysis of the spacer
uncovered a number of binding sites for specific TFs, none of which had been
previously associated with this particular promoter. Each of the TFs in the
promoter organizational model are also known to participate in stages of fly
development that are characterized by DNA replication and/or cell division,
thus providing a biologically functional rationale for an association.
Moreover, phylogenetic analysis of the binding sites provides evidence for
evolutionary conservation of the essential features of the organizational
model. The model, if correct, provides information about the molecules that
couple developmental specific demands and histone gene transcription.
