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  • Original Paper
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Several regions of p53 are involved in repression of RNA polymerase III transcription

Oncogene volume 21, pages 5540–5547 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

The tumour suppressor p53 has been shown to regulate RNA polymerase (pol) III transcription both in vitro and in vivo. We have characterized the regions of p53 that contribute to this effect. Repression of pol III transcription in vivo does not require residues 13–19 near the N-terminus of p53 that are highly conserved through evolution. However, amino acids 22 and 23 in the adjacent transactivation domain do contribute to the inhibition of pol III activity. Deletions within the central DNA-binding core domain (residues 102–292) of p53 can entirely abolish the repression function in these assays, despite the fact that pol III templates contain no recognized p53 binding site. Deletion or substitution within the C-terminal domain of p53 can also compromise its ability to repress pol III activity in vitro and in transfected cells. These observations reveal that repression of pol III transcription is a complex function involving multiple regions of p53 extending throughout much of the protein.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Arnold Berk, Sheila Graham, Arnold Levine and Karen Vousden for plasmids. This work was funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research to J Milner and by project grant SP2314/0102 to RJ White from Cancer Research UK (formerly the Cancer Research Campaign). RJ White is a Jenner Research Fellow of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, Davidson Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK

    Torsten Stein, Diane Crighton & Robert J White

  2. Department of Biology, YCR P53 Research Group, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK

    Lorna J Warnock & Jo Milner

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  1. Torsten Stein
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  3. Lorna J Warnock
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Correspondence to Robert J White.

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Stein, T., Crighton, D., Warnock, L. et al. Several regions of p53 are involved in repression of RNA polymerase III transcription. Oncogene 21, 5540–5547 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1205739

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