Spacing and orientation of bipartite DNA-binding motifs as potential functional determinants for POU domain factors.

Investigation of the large POU domain family of developmental regulaotrs has revealed a molecular mechanism by which highly related transcription factors sharing common DNA-binding motifs act to functionally discriminate their cognate DNA sequences. Studies of two classes of neuron-specific POU domain factors (III and IV) indicate that functional specificity on their native response elements is achieved by accomodating different nucleotide spacing between variably oriented bipartite core DNA-binding motifs