Abstract
High levels of transcription from the amyloid precursor protein promoter are dependent on the binding of CTCF to the APBbeta core recognition sequence located between positions -82 and -93 upstream from the transcriptional start site. CTCF comprises 727 amino acids and contains 11 zinc finger motifs arranged in tandem that are flanked by 267 amino acids on the N-terminal side and 150 amino acids on the C-terminal side. Deletion of either the N- or the C-terminal regions outside of the zinc finger domain had no detrimental effect on the binding of CTCF to APBbeta. However, internal deletions of zinc fingers 5-7 completely abolished binding. The binding of full-length CTCF generated a DNase I protected domain extending from position -78 to -116, which was interrupted by a hypersensitive site at position -99. Selective deletions from the N- and C-terminal sides of the zinc finger domain showed that the N-terminal end of the zinc finger domain was aligned toward the transcriptional start site. Furthermore, deletions of zinc fingers peripheral to the essential zinc fingers 5-7 decreased the stability of the binding complex by interrupting sequence-specific interactions.

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