In molecular biology, a GC box, also known as a GSG box, is a distinct pattern of nucleotides found in the promoter region of some eukaryotic genes. The GC box is upstream of the

TATA box In molecular biology, the TATA box (also called the Goldberg–Hogness box) is a sequence of DNA found in the core promoter region of genes in archaea and eukaryotes. The bacterial homolog of the TATA box is called the Pribnow box which has ...

, and approximately 110 bases upstream from the transcription initiation site. It has a

consensus sequence In molecular biology and bioinformatics, the consensus sequence (or canonical sequence) is the calculated order of most frequent residues, either nucleotide or amino acid, found at each position in a sequence alignment. It serves as a simplified r ...

GGGCGG which is position-dependent and orientation-independent. The GC elements are bound by transcription factors and have similar functions to enhancers. Some known GC box-binding proteins include Sp1, Krox/Egr, Wilms' tumor, MIGI, and CREA. The GC box is commonly the binding site for

zinc finger A zinc finger is a small protein structural motif that is characterized by the coordination of one or more zinc ions (Zn2+) in order to stabilize the fold. It was originally coined to describe the finger-like appearance of a hypothesized struct ...

proteins. An alpha helix section of the protein corresponds with a major groove in the DNA. Zinc-fingers bind to triplet base pair sequences, with residue 21 binding to the first base pair, residue 18 binding to the second base pair, and residue 15 binding to the third base pair. The triplet base pairs can either be a GGG or a GCG. If residue 18 is a histidine, it will bind to a G, and if residue 18 is a glutamate, it will bind to a C. GC box-binding zinc fingers have between 2 and 4 fingers, making them interact with base pair sequences that are 6 to 8 base pairs in length.

References

Molecular biology {{molecular-biology-stub