Stability and DNA binding ability of the DNA binding domains of interferon regulatory factors 1 and 3

Microcalorimatric and optical methods are used to study the thermodynamic properties and DNA binding ability of the N-terminal DNA binding domains of interferon regulatory factors IRF-1 (DBD1) and IRF-3 (DBD3). It is found that DBD1 has more sequence specificity than DBD3 and the strength of the DBDs' specific association with DNA is inversely related to the stability of the free DBDs.