Promoteurs et région 5'

Une séquence promotrice flanque l'exon 5'.

Il existe trois types de promoteurs eucaryotes, pour les trois types d'ARN polymérase les reconnaissant: Pol-I, Pol-II et Pol-III. Les promoteurs Pol-I se trouvent face aux ARNr 18S et 28S. Les promoteurs Pol-II se trouvent face aux ARNm. Les promoteurs Pol-III se trouvent face aux ARNt et ARNr 5S.

Les promoteurs de type Pol-II sont généralement les plus intéressants car ils signalent les gènes protéiques. Ces promoteurs contiennent une boîte TATA et au moins une autre séquence importante en amont.

On peut la schématiser ainsi (TATA=boîte TATA, INR= Initiateur):

Facteurs protéiques liant le promoteur, juste avant l'initiation de la transcription. Cas typique, mais nullement général, les facteurs de variant considérablement suivant les gènes et l'environnment. On connait plus de 2000 facteurs de transcription.

La boîte TATA

La majorité des promoteur de gènes protéiques eucaryotes contiennent une boîte TATA.

General eukaryotic TATA-box model derived from 860 unrelated promoter sequences:

Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
% A 19.4 23.4 5.0 83.5 4.4 89.2 71.0 84.8 45.0 35.7 15.5 18.5
% C 22.7 34.0 11.0 1.3 3.3 0.8 0.8 2.9 3.4 14.0 36.5 37.0
% G 26.5 30.8 4.5 1.4 0.9 1.7 0.5 9.5 16.4 38.4 36.3 30.4
% T 31.4 11.7 79.5 13.9 91.4 8.4 27.7 2.8 35.2 11.8 11.7 14.1
Consensus     T A T A W A D R    

L'Initiateur

Les éléments en amont du promoteur

Document: Les TATA Box Binding Proteins (TBP)

TATA Binding Proteins The TBP is a small protein of about 3000 Daltons in mass. It is the first factor to make contact with the DNA and is known as the commitment factor, as once the TBP has bound to the TATA-Box, the promoter is transcribed.
As the TATA-Box is a fixed distance away from the start point, it's recognition by the T F II D is vital in positioning the BIC.
The TBP binds into the minor groove of the double stranded DNA molecule and consists of 2 similar domains (40% homologous) which are highly conserved in all eukaryotes, and a very variable N-Terminal region. When bound to the DNA, the 2 similar domains 'straddle' one side of the DNA molecule, which binds to their inner surface. The N-Terminal end binds to the other proteins of the BIC.
The picture above, shows the TBP, bound to the DNA. The 2 similar domains (pale blue and green) straddle the DNA (dark blue).
There is more than a passing similarity between the TBP and the sigma factor of bacterial promoters, and the TBP has a 30% homology to it. The TBP is highly conserved in all eukaryotes.
The TBP is the only BTF to bind specifically to the DNA.
The TBP covers 1 turn of the DNA molecule between positions -37 and -25.
By Matthew I. Walton, E-mail M.I.Walton@stud.man.ac.uk. University of Manchester (1997).

Les ilots CpG

Les ilôts CpG sont des zones riches en dinucléotide CG, fréquemment associées aux régions 5' des gènes de vertébrés

Extrait de l'article de Nature sur le génome humain
The dinucleotide CpG is notable because it is greatly under-represented in human DNA, occurring at only about one- fth of the roughly 4% frequency that would be expected by simply multiplying the typical fraction of Cs and Gs (0.21 ´ 0.21). The deficit occurs because most CpG dinucleotides are methylated on the cytosine base, and spontaneous deamination of methyl-C residues gives rise to T residues. (Spontaneous deamination of ordinary cytosine residues gives rise to uracil residues that are readily recognized and repaired by the cell.) As a result, methyl- CpG dinucleotides steadily mutate to TpG dinucleotides. However, the genome contains many `CpG islands' in which CpG dinucleo- tides are not methylated and occur at a frequency closer to that predicted by the local GC content. CpG islands are of particular interest because many are associated with the 5' ends of genes