Identification of Transcription Repressors of BRCA1

摘要

A paper entitled 'Model of transcriptional regulation of the BRCA1- NBR2 bi-directional transcriptional unit' has been conditionally accepted by the journal Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Gene Structure and Expression. This manuscript is the first detailed study on transcriptional elements located more than 1kb upstream to the minimal BRCA1 promoter. This paper defines the boundary and established a model of how uni-directional transcription is regulated for the BRCA1-NBR2 bi-directional transcription unit. Interestingly,- despite the absence of BRCA1 promoter activity in the mouse myoblast cell line, C2C12, the intronic repressor element of BRCA1 - appears to be functional in these cells. A recent study has shown an increase in BRCA1 expression during differentiation of a mouse mammary epithelial cell line HC11, as well as the differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts into myotubes. The highly restricted manner of how BRCA1 is regulated implies its important role in cell differentiation. The work on isolating repressor proteins that we sought to identify has been delayed due to many non-technical issues (see report). Nevertheless, the most critical experiment is now in progress and exciting results are forthcoming. We look forward to file a more complete report when these data are available.