Transcriptional activation and repression by cellular DNA-binding protein C/EBP.

A putative transcription factor, C/EBP, isolated from rat liver nuclei, has been shown to bind to at least two different sequence motifs: the CCAAT promoter domain and a core sequence [GTGG(T/A)(T/A)(T/A)G] common to many viral enhancers, including simian virus 40 and human hepatitis B virus. It has been proposed that C/EBP might function as a positive transcription factor by facilitating the communication between promoter and enhancer elements through its dual binding activities to DNA. Surprisingly, results from three different approaches suggest that C/EBP functions as a transcriptional repressor to hepatitis B virus and simian virus 40. Further investigation indicated that C/EBP can function as both a transcriptional activator and a repressor, depending on the reporter gene system.