AIRE relies on Z-DNA to flag gene targets for thymic T cell tolerization
AIRE is an unconventional transcription factor that enhances the expression of thousands of genes in medullary thymic epithelial cells and promotes clonal deletion or phenotypic diversion of self-reactive T cells1–4. The biological logic of AIRE’s target specificity remains largely unclear as, in contrast to many transcription factors, it does not bind to a particular DNA sequence motif. Here we implemented two orthogonal approaches to investigate AIRE’s cis-regulatory mechanisms: construction of a convolutional neural network and leveraging natural genetic variation through ...
Source: nature.com
