{"doi":"10.1534/genetics.120.303144","title":"Promoter-Proximal Chromatin Domain Insulator Protein BEAF Mediates Local and Long-Range Communication with a Transcription Factor and Directly Activates a Housekeeping Promoter in <i>Drosophila</i>","abstract":"Abstract BEAF (Boundary Element-Associated Factor) was originally identified as a Drosophila melanogaster chromatin domain insulator-binding protein, suggesting a role in gene regulation through chromatin organization and dynamics. Genome-wide mapping found that BEAF usually binds near transcription start sites, often of housekeeping genes, suggesting a role in promoter function. This would be a nontraditional role for an insulator-binding protein. To gain insight into molecular mechanisms of BEAF function, we identified interacting proteins using yeast two-hybrid assays. Here, we focus on the transcription factor Serendipity δ (Sry-δ). Interactions were confirmed in pull-down experiments using bacterially expressed proteins, by bimolecular fluorescence complementation, and in a genetic assay in transgenic flies. Sry-δ interacted with promoter-proximal BEAF both when bound to DNA adjacent to BEAF or &amp;gt; 2-kb upstream to activate a reporter gene in transient transfection experiments. The interaction between BEAF and Sry-δ was detected using both a minimal developmental promoter (y) and a housekeeping promoter (RpS12), while BEAF alone strongly activated the housekeeping promoter. These two functions for BEAF implicate it in playing a direct role in gene regulation at hundreds of BEAF-associated promoters.","journal":"Genetics","year":2020,"id":72828,"datarank":0.5725557991499123,"base_score":2.70805020110221,"endowment":2.70805020110221,"self_citation_contribution":0.40620753016533157,"citation_network_contribution":0.16634826898458072,"self_endowment_contribution":0.40620753016533157,"citer_contribution":0.16634826898458072,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":14,"citer_count":9,"citers_with_citation_signal":9,"citers_with_endowment":9,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9631,"is_data_producer":true,"deposit_databanks":{"figshare":["10.6084/m9.figshare.11988537"]},"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":384433,"name":"S. V. Satya Prakash Avva","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":383570,"name":"Mukesh Maharjan","orcid":"0000-0002-8002-3311","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":384434,"name":"Janice Jacobi","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":383571,"name":"Craig M. Hart","orcid":"0000-0002-9870-991X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":384432,"name":"Yuankai Dong","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":79,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:45:09.279825Z","pmid":"32179582","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}