This project is directed toward an understanding of enhancer elements and positive regulatory proteins that interact with enhancers. Recent focus of the project has been the possible role of the 3' long open reading frame of the human T-cell leukemia virus type-I (HTLV-I) to encode a 40-kd protein factor (pX) that positively regulates transcription directed by the HTLV-I long terminal repeats, a phenomenon known as trans-activation. Our objective is to produce pX in large quantity in E. coli and to study the molecular mechanism of transactivation in vitro and in vivo.
