Dissection of the SRF transcriptional network: from mechanisms to cell behaviour.

Serum response factor (SRF) controls gene activation in response to changes in actin dynamics and mitogen-activated protein kinases.
SRF has low intrinsic transcriptional activity and requires the recruitment of one of two families of co-activators: the MRTFs (myocardin-related transcription factors) and the TCFs (ternary complex factors). MRTFs are actin-binding proteins. The TCF family are specifically activated by MAPK signalling.
Although much has been explored over the past years, little is known about the mechanisms these two pathways adopt to control gene expression and the specific cohort of genes they activate.
During this seminar I will present the overall network architecture, the strategy we adopted to identify target genes, their wider functional significance and the mechanism involved in their activation.