Part:BBa_K782066

NicTAL12:NLS:VP16

Introduction

TAL effectors (TALEs) are bacterial plant pathogen transcription factors, that bind to DNA by specifically recognizing one base pair with a single tandem repeat in their DNA-binding domain. A tandem TALE repeat contains 33 to 35 amino acids, where the 12th and 13th amino acid, called a “repeat variable diresidue” (RVD), are responsible for specific interactions with the corresponding base pair (Scholze and Boch, 2011).

VP16 is a 490-amino-acid protein that contains a core domain, which is enriched in acidic residues. The VP16 core contains both structured and unstructured regions. The structured region possesses a seat-like structure in which the seat surface recognizes and binds the TAATGARAT sequence on DNA. On its own, however, VP16 does not bind to DNA well. Instead, VP16 is stabilized on the DNA by the unstructured region which interacts with Oct-1, HCF-1 and the DNA in the complex. In this complex, VP16 is able to activate transcription (Wysocka et al., 2003).

We discovered that NicTAL part deposited in the Registry by the Slovenian iGEM2010 team was missing subdomain in DNA-binding domain, so our team added this missing part[1] along with the VP16 domain.

Figure 1: Schematic representation of the activator construct.

Characterization

HEK293T cells were cotransfected with TAL activator construct, constituitively expressed by the CMV promoter, and mCitrine reporter plasmid, containing 4 binding sites for the designated TAL activator upstream of a minimal promoter (Figure 2). All experiments were executed in 3 biological replicates and repeated over 3 times with similar results. Tested TAL activator exhibited over 1500-fold activation of the mCitrine reporter (Figure 3).

Figure 2: Schematic representation of activation experiments. A: in the absence of a TAL activator, the expression of the reporter gene is repressed. B: when TAL activator is present, it binds to its respective binding site upstream of the minimal promoter and activates transcription of the reporter gene with the VP16 domain.

Figure 3: Testing activation of reporter gene transcription by addition of TAL activator.

• VP16 domain was contributed by the host lab

References

Scholze, H., and Boch, J. (2011) TAL effectors are remote controls for gene activation. Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 14, 47-53.

Wysocka J. and Herr W (2003) The herpes simplex virus VP16-induced complex: the makings of a regulatory switch. TRENDS in Biochemical Sciences 28, 294-304.

Sequence and Features

Assembly Compatibility:

• 10
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[10]
• 12
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[12]
• 21
  INCOMPATIBLE WITH RFC[21]

  Illegal BamHI site found at 2133
  Illegal XhoI site found at 1224
  
• 23
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[23]
• 25
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[25]
• 1000
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[1000]