28 research outputs found
Nonspecific Protein-DNA Binding Is Widespread in the Yeast Genome
Recent genome-wide measurements of binding preferences of ~200 transcription
regulators in the vicinity of transcription start sites in yeast, have provided
a unique insight into the cis- regulatory code of a eukaryotic genome (Venters
et al., Mol. Cell 41, 480 (2011)). Here, we show that nonspecific transcription
factor (TF)-DNA binding significantly influences binding preferences of the
majority of transcription regulators in promoter regions of the yeast genome.
We show that promoters of SAGA-dominated and TFIID-dominated genes can be
statistically distinguished based on the landscape of nonspecific protein-DNA
binding free energy. In particular, we predict that promoters of SAGA-dominated
genes possess wider regions of reduced free energy compared to promoters of
TFIID-dominated genes. We also show that specific and nonspecific TF-DNA
binding are functionally linked and cooperatively influence gene expression in
yeast. Our results suggest that nonspecific TF-DNA binding is intrinsically
encoded into the yeast genome, and it may play a more important role in
transcriptional regulation than previously thought
In Search of a Trade Mark: Search Practices and Bureaucratic Poetics
Trade marks have been understood as quintessential ‘bureaucratic properties’. This article suggests that the making of trade marks has been historically influenced by bureaucratic practices of search and classification, which in turn were affected by the possibilities and limits of spatial organisation and technological means of access and storage. It shows how the organisation of access and retrieval did not only condition the possibility of conceiving new trade marks, but also served to delineate their intangible proprietary boundaries. Thereby they framed the very meaning of a trade mark. By advancing a historical analysis that is sensitive to shifts, both in actual materiality and in the administrative routines of trade mark law, the article highlights the legal form of trade mark as inherently social and materially shaped. We propose a historical understanding of trade mark law that regards legal practice and bureaucratic routines as being co-constitutive of the very legal object itself