Evidence for a trans-acting factor that regulates the transcription of class II major histocompatibility complex genes: genetic and functional analysis.

The study of specific trans-acting transcription factors in prokaryotes and lower eukaryotes has been greatly facilitated by genetic analysis of mutant strains deficient in such factors. We have developed such a system to study mammalian trans-acting factors that regulate the transcription of class II major histocompatibility complex genes, using the mutant cell lines RM2 and RM3. These cells, derived from the human B-cell line Raji, specifically fail to transcribe their class II major histocompatibility complex genes. Here we show that a transfected HLA-DR alpha class II major histocompatibility complex gene, like the endogenous HLA-DR alpha genes, is efficiently transcribed in Raji cells but not in RM2 or RM3 cells, demonstrating that the mutant cells are deficient in a specific trans-acting factor required for transcription of these genes. HLA-DR expression in RM2 and RM3 cells is rescued by fusion to another B-cell line but not by fusion to each other. Thus, the defects in the two cell lines are recessive and noncomplementing and define a locus whose wild-type product we designate TF-X1. We show that TF-X1 influences the activity of a 24-base-pair B-cell-specific cis-acting transcription element in the HLA-DR alpha promoter. However, in three different biochemical assays, we detect no difference between wild-type and mutant cells in the DNA-binding proteins that interact with these DNA sequences. Thus, the defective version of TF-X1 may be a DNA-binding protein that binds to the HLA-DR alpha promoter but fails to activate transcription. Alternatively, TF-X1 may not be a DNA-binding protein at all.