Targets for Transcriptional Activation by Wild-type p53: Endogenous Retroviral LTR, Immunoglobulin-like Promoter, and an Internal Promoter of the mdm2 Gene

Abstract

The p53 protein is the product of a tumor suppressor gene which is subject to an extremely high frequency of structural alterations in human cancer (for review, see Hollstein et al. 1991; Levine et al. 1991; Oren 1992; Donehower and Bradley 1993; Harris and Hollstein 1993; Berns 1994). The main selective advantage of such alterations is probably the elimination of the tumor suppressor functions of the wild-type (wt) p53 protein. However, at least some of the p53 point mutations commonly encountered in tumor cells may also entail an oncogenic gain of function (Wolf et al. 1984; Chen et al. 1990; Michalovitz et al. 1991; Dittmer et al. 1993).