The intracisternal A-particle upstream element interacts with transcription factor YY1 to activate transcription: Pleiotropic effects of YY1 on distinct DNA promoter elements

Murine intracisternal A-particle long terminal repeats contain an intracisternal A-particle upstream enhancer (IUE) element that binds to a 65- kDa IUE binding protein (IUEB) present in both undifferentiated F9 embryonal carcinoma cells and differentiated parietal endoderm-like PYS-2 cells. This IUE element confers a CpG methylation-sensitive IUEB binding and enhancer activity. Using gel retardation, methylation interference, CpG methylation sensitivity binding, and cotransfection assays, we have now identified the 65-kDa IUEB as YY1 (also called NF-E1, δ, or UCRBP), a zinc finger protein related to the Kruppel family. YY1 binds to a number of similar but distinct DNA motifs, and cotransfection assays indicate that these motifs have different enhancer potentials in PYS-2 cells. The relative strengths of these elements are as follows: IUE > κE3' from the human immunoglobulin kappa light-chain 3' enhancer > upstream conserved region from the Moloney murine leukemia virus promoter. Results of DNA binding assays suggest that the differences in enhancer potentials are due to the different binding affinities of YY1 to the various motifs and the binding of two other transcription factors to the IUE sequence.