title: Gene structure and 5'-flanking regulatory region of the murine serotonin transporter.
abstract: By modulating the magnitude and duration of postsynaptic responses, carrier-facilitated serotonin (5-HT) transport into and release from the presynaptic neuron is central to the fine tuning of serotonergic neurotransmission. The 5-HT transporter (5-HTT) is the prime target for widely used antidepressants, psychostimulants, drugs of abuse and neurotoxins. We have isolated the gene encoding the murine 5-HTT and determined the sequence of all exons including adjacent intronic regions and approximately 3.6 kb of the 5'-flanking regulatory region. The murine 5-HTT gene is composed of 14 exons spanning approximately 34 kb. The single gene transcript after splicing is 2744 bp in length and it contains 186 bp of 5' untranslated region (5'-UTR) and 668 bp of 3'-UTR. A TATA-like motif and several potential binding sites for transcription factors including AP1, AP2, AP4, SP1 as well as CRE- and GRE-like motifs are present in the GC-rich 5'-flanking region. The characterization of murine 5-HTT cDNA and genomic organization will facilitate studies of 5-HT uptake function with molecular pharmacologic and transgenic strategies as well as investigations of its role in quantitative traits and psychiatric disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bengel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heils
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Petri
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Seemann
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Glatz
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Andrews
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Lesch
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons; D005809:Genes, Regulator; D016678:Genome; D007438:Introns; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics*; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010442:Peptide Chain Initiation, Translational; D012701:Serotonin; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; C493231:Slc6a4 protein, mouse; D012701:Serotonin