Factors (TAFs) required for activated transcription interact with TATA box-binding protein conserved core domain

TFIID is a multisubunit protein containing the TATA box-binding polypeptide (TBP) and associated factors (TFIID-TAFs) required for activated transcription by RNA polymerase II. TBPs from different eukaryotes contain a highly conserved carboxy-terminal domain and very divergent amino-terminal domains. Earlier studies proposed that the amino-terminal domains of metazoan TBPs are required for activated transcription. However, we report that a human TFIID complex containing an amino-terminal truncated TBP contains all the major TFIID-TAFs and supports in vitro transcriptional stimulation by different classes of activation domains and from a TATA-less promoter. Protein blotting experiments revealed direct interactions between the conserved domain of TBP and the two largest TAFs. The results suggest a model for the interaction of TFIID-TAFs with TBP.