Curved DNA and Transcription in Eukaryotes

Abstract

Intrinsically curved DNA structures are often found in or around transcriptional control regions of eukaryotic genes, and curved DNA may be common to all class I gene promoters. Although not all class II gene promoters contain curved DNA structures, both TATA-box-containing and TATA-box-less promoters often contain such structures. Furthermore, several studies have suggested that the TATA box itself adopts a curved DNA conformation. Curved DNA structures are likely to function in transcription in several ways. These include acting as a conformational signal for transcription factor binding; juxtaposition of the basal machinery with effector domains on upstream-bound factors; regulation of transcription in association with transcription-factor-induced bending of DNA; and organization of local chromatin structure to increase the accessibility of cis-DNA elements. This chapter presents a concise overview of studies of these functions.