Biological Systems that Control Transcription of DNA Repair and Telomere Maintenance-Associated Genes

A variety of transcription factor binding sequences instead of the authentic TATAor TA‐ TA-like elements are present in large numbers of 5’-flanking or regulatory regions of the hu‐ man genes [1]. Our previous research showed that several human gene promoter regions of the DNA repair-associated genes, including PARP, PARG, ATR, and RB1, contain duplicated GGAA-motifs or ETS binding sequences, although they have no obvious TATA-like ele‐ ments [2]. On the other hand, surveillance of a human genomic DNA database revealed that 5’-flanking regions of the human genes encoding telomerase and telomere maintenance fac‐ tors, which are called as shelterins, are TATA-less but most of them carry GC-boxes and/or Sp1-binding sequences [3]. These observations suggest that the expression of the DNA re‐ pair and telomere maintenance factor-encoding genes is likely to be regulated by a TATAindependent mechanism.