Induction of thymidine kinase parallels the onset of DNA synthesis. To investigate the transcriptional regulation of the thymidine kinase gene, we have examined whether specific nuclear factors interact in a cell-cycle-dependent manner with sequences upstream of this gene. Two inverted CCAAT boxes near the transcriptional initiation sites were observed to form complexes with nuclear DNA-binding proteins. The nature of the complexes changes dramatically as the cells approach DNA synthesis and correlates well with the previously reported transcriptional increase of the thymidine kinase gene.
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