What is a TATA box?

A TATA box refers to a specific sequence of DNA, located in the core promoter region in DNA transcription. It is also known as the Goldberg-Hogness box. The TATA box is named for its conserved DNA sequence, characterized by repetitive T and A base pairs. The TATA box indicates where a genetic sequence can be read and decoded  It is able to define the direction of transcription and also indicates the DNA strand to be read. Proteins called transcription factors can bind to the TATA box and recruit an enzyme called RNA polymerase, which synthesizes RNA from DNA.