Gene expression/regulation factors

Transcription factors are proteins involved in the regulation of gene expression that bind to the promoter elements upstream of genes and either promote or block transcription. Through this process they modulate gene expression. Transcription factors... 

An impressive example of the important role of MS in the study of gene expression regulation by transcription factors is a study of the peroxisome prohferator-activated receptor (PPAR) proteins regulating genes involved in mammalian Hpid metabolism [373]. In this example, 2-DE-MS was used to study the effect of a therapeutic dose of the PPARa transcription factor in a mouse disease model of insulin resistance and diabetes. The dose caused... 

Eucaryotes have many more genes and a broader range of specific transcription factors than procaryotes and gene expression is regulated by using sets of these factors in a combinatorial way. Eucaryotes have found several different solutions to the problem of producing a three-dimensional scaffold that allows a protein to interact specifically with DNA. In the next chapter we shall discuss some of the solutions that have no counterpart in procaryotes. However, the procaryotic helix-turn-helix solution to this problem (see Chapter 8) is also exploited in eucaryotes, in homeodomain proteins and some other families of transcription factors. 

Originally described in the immune system, NFAT proteins comprise a family of transcriptional factors that play key roles in many cellular processes that control not only immune responses but also the development, regulation, and differentiation of many other tissues. Activation of NFAT proteins results in the expression of specific sets of genes that regulate multiple cell functions [1,2]. 

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