Maize high mobility group proteins bind to CCAAT and TATA boxes of a zein gene promoter.

A 216-base pair promoter fragment of the 19-kDa zein storage protein gene pMS1, containing the CCAAT and TATA boxes, was analyzed for its in vitro interactions with purified high mobility group (HMG) proteins from maize endosperm tissue. It was found that the HMG proteins display a preferential binding of A/T-rich DNA regions like their animal counterparts, although the A/T content seems not to be the only determinant for binding specificity. Surprisingly, a specific binding of the HMG proteins occurs at the CCAAT and the TATA boxes as indicated by footprinting experiments.