Quantitative Single Cell Analysis for Transcriptional Activity of p53 Hetero-tetramers between Wild-type Protein and Oligomerization Domain

p53 acts as a transcriptional factor for tumor suppression via tetramerization. Although the dominant-negative effect occurs by hetero-oligomerization between wild-type and mutant p53, the precise mechanism remains unclear. Here, we report an analysis of the transcriptional ability of each hetero-tetramer p53 at the physiological protein expression level in single cells. Quantitative fitting analysis showed that hetero-tetramers which contain more than two wild-type p53 have substantial transcriptional ability. These results suggest that the two DNA binding domains are important for transcription.