Quantitative Discrimination of MEF2 Sites
J.W. Fickett
Molecular and Cellular Biology, 16(1):437-441 (1996)
Abstract
Myocyte-specific enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) is a family of closely
related transcription factors that play a key role in the differentiation
of muscle tissues and are important in the muscle-specific expression
of a number of genes. Given the centrality of MEF2 in muscle
differentiation, regulatory regions newly determined to be muscle
specific are often studied for potential MEF2 binding sites. Possible
sites are often located by comparison to a homologous gene or by
matching to the consensus MEF2 sequence. Enough data have
accumulated that a richer description of the MEF2 binding site, a
position weight matrix, can be reliably constructed and its usefulness
can be assessed. It was shown that scores from such a matrix
approximate MEF2 binding energy and enable recognition of naturally
occurring MEF2 sites with high sensitivity and specificity. Regulation
of genes via MEF2-like sites is complicated by the fact that a number
of transcription factors are involved. Not only is MEF2 itself a family
of proteins, but several other, nonhomologous, transcription factors
overlap MEF2 in DNA-binding specificity. Thus, more quantitative
methods for recognizing potential sites may help with the lengthy
process of disentangling the complex regulatory circuits of
muscle-specific expression.
