The human cut homeodomain protein represses transcription from the c-myc promoter.

Studies of the c-myc promoter have shown that efficient transcription initiation at the P2 start site as well as the block to elongation of transcription require the presence of the ME1a1 protein binding site upstream of the P2 TATA box. Following fractionation by size exclusion chromatography, three protein-ME1a1 DNA complexes, a, b, and c, were detected by electrophoretic mobility shift assay. A cDNA encoding a protein present in complex c was isolated by screening of an expression library with an ME1a1 DNA probe. This cDNA was found to encode the human homolog of the Drosophila Cut homeodomain protein. The bacterially expressed human Cut (hu-Cut) protein bound to the ME1a1 site, and antibodies against hu-Cut inhibited the ME1a1 binding activity c in nuclear extracts. In cotransfection experiments, the hu-Cut protein repressed transcription from the c-myc promoter, and this repression was shown to be dependent on the presence of the ME1a1 site. Using a reporter construct with a heterologous promoter, we found that c-myc exon 1 sequences were also necessary, in addition to the ME1a1 site, for repression by Cut. Taken together, these results suggest that the human homolog of the Drosophila Cut homeodomain protein is involved in regulation of the c-myc gene.