Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Cell signalling

DREAM on without calcium

Nature volume 398, pages 29–30 (1999)Cite this article

On page 80 of this issue1, Carrión and co-workers describe an entirely new mechanism for the regulation of gene expression by an increased concentration of calcium ions in response to an incoming cellular signal. The authors have studied transcription from the gene encoding prodynorphin, an opioid peptide, and find that so long as the gene is tightly bound by a protein they call DREAM, transcription is repressed; but when calcium ions occupy their four tailor-made sites on DREAM, it floats off the DNA and allows the neuropeptide to be expressed.

Direct binding to transcription factors is a departure from the previously characterized actions of Ca2+. Calcium is known to modulate the activity of transcription factors by first activating cascades of protein kinases or phosphatases, which respectively phosphorylate and dephosphorylate a succession of intermediates. One kinase pathway involves CREB (for cyclic AMP-regulated enhancer (CRE)-binding) protein, which was initially characterized as a mediator of extracellular signals using the cAMP/protein kinase A (PKA) pathway. A rise in intracellular calcium activates CREB by a different route, by triggering the sequential activation of another set of kinases, Ca2+ /calmodulin (CaM) kinase and CaM kinase IV (ref. 2).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The transcriptional repressor DREAM is regulated by direct binding to calcium.

References

  1. Carrión, A. M., Link, W. A., Ledo, F., Mellstrom, B. & Naranjo, J. R. Nature 398, 80–84 (1999).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Tokumitsu, H.et al. J. Biol. Chem. 270, 19320–19324 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Chawla, S.et al. Science 281, 1505–1509 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Crabtree, G. R. & Clipstone, N. A. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 63, 1045–1083 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  5. DaSilva, A. C. R., Kendrick-Jones, J. & Reinach, F. C. J. Biol. Chem. 270, 6773–6778 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Brocard, J. B., Rajdev, S. & Reynolds, I. J. Neuron 11, 751–757 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Cox, J. A.et al. J. Biol. Chem. 269, 32807–32813 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Carrión, A. M., Mellstrom, B. & Naranjo, J. R. Mol. Cell. Biol. 18, 6921–6929 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Finkbeiner, S. & Greenberg, M. E. BioEssays 19, 657–660 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Hadfield, J. A. in Dreams and Nightmares 139 (Penguin, Harmondsworth, UK, 1954).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, State University of New York, Stony Brook, 11794-5230, New York, USA

    Gail Mandel

  2. Vollum Institute, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, 97201-3098, Oregon, USA

    Richard H. Goodman

Authors
  1. Gail Mandel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Richard H. Goodman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mandel, G., Goodman, R. DREAM on without calcium. Nature 398, 29–30 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/17933

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/17933

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing