MIDA1, an Id-associating protein, has two distinct DNA binding activities that are converted by the association with Id1: a novel function of Id protein.

Id proteins not only regulate cell differentiation negatively, but they also promote growth, immortalization, and apoptosis. To know the mechanism of how Id regulates cell fate, we previously isolated an Id-associating protein, MIDA1, which positively regulates cell growth (1). Its predicted amino acid sequence consists of a Zuotin (a Z-DNA binding protein in yeast) homology region and tryptophan-mediated repeats (Tryp-med repeats). MIDA1 exhibits a sequence-specific DNA binding activity through the Tryp-med repeats (manuscript in preparation). In this study, we revealed that, like Zuotin, MIDA1 can specifically bind to Z-DNA. This suggested that MIDA is a novel DNA binding protein that has two different DNA binding activities. Furthermore, association of Id1 with MIDA1 stimulated the sequence-specific DNA binding activity, while it inhibited the Z-DNA binding activity. Therefore, we concluded that MIDA1 may act as a mediator of the growth-promoting function of Id, by switching the two DNA binding activities of MIDA1.