Transcriptional control elements of the rat thymidylate synthase promoter: evolutionary conservation of regulatory features.
The sequence elements that are important for the transcription and regulation of the rat thymidylate synthase (TS) gene were analyzed. The rat TS promoter lacks a TATA box and directs transcriptional initiation at multiple sites between 60 and 20 nt upstream of the AUG translational start codon. Promoter deletion analyses showed that the region between -100 and -42 nt relative to the AUG codon was both necessary and sufficient for high level promoter activity and was designated the essential promoter region. The essential region also had bidirectional promoter activity. Site-directed mutagenesis revealed that four elements were especially important for promoter activity. These include Ets motifs at -85 and -50, an Sp1 motif at -80, and an LSF motif that overlapped the upstream Ets and Sp1 motifs. Inactivation of E2F motifs that are upstream and downstream of the essential promoter region had no measurable effect on promoter activity in transient transfection assays. The rat TS promoter region directed S-phase-specific expression of a stably transfected minigene if a spliceable intron was included in the transcribed region. When the intron was deleted or the E2F motifs were inactivated, expression of the minigene changed very little during the G1 to S transition.
Department of Molecular Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, USA.
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D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D002460:Cell Line; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D050684:E2F Transcription Factors; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D050783:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ets; D051381:Rats; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D056465:Retinoblastoma-Binding Protein 1; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D016329:Sp1 Transcription Factor / Q000378:metabolism; D013940:Thymidylate Synthase / Q000235:genetics*; D050680:Transcription Factor DP1; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014162:Transfection
C533431:Arid4a protein, mouse; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D050684:E2F Transcription Factors; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D050783:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ets; D056465:Retinoblastoma-Binding Protein 1; D016329:Sp1 Transcription Factor; D050680:Transcription Factor DP1; D014157:Transcription Factors; D013940:Thymidylate Synthase