Exocrine pancreas transcription factor 1 binds to a bipartite enhancer element and activates transcription of acinar genes.

Exocrine pancreas (XP) enhancers, which contain a conserved core sequence, are active only in XP cells. A core enhancer-binding activity also appears to be restricted to XP nuclei. Here we describe the properties of a factor, purified approximately 100,000-fold from pancreas nuclei, which displays core enhancer-binding activity. It is not identical to previously characterized factors and is termed exocrine pancreas transcription factor 1 (XPF-1). In the highly purified preparation, only a single major protein of 60 kDa was detected by silver staining on sodium dodecyl sulfate-gels and by UV cross-linking. XPF-1 binds to the core enhancer of all tested XP genes and not to a mutant sequence which is inactive in vivo. High-affinity binding sites are bipartite. The results of competition binding and UV-cross-linking assays suggest that XPF-1 interacts with both motifs. XPF-1 selectively stimulates transcription of core enhancer templates in an in vitro transcription system. We hypothesize that XPF-1 plays a role in activation of the transcription of XP-specific genes.