Understanding the mechanisms by which the transcription rate of a particular gene is
controlled is a common goal of many investigators. A general approach taken to study
transcriptional regulation has been to first identify a protein-binding site (s) using methods
such as DNase footprinting or gel mobility shift assays and then to remove the binding site
(s) from its natural context by placing single or multiple copies of the site (s) upstream of a
heterologous minimal promoter. This approach has the advantage that a large degree of …