title: In vivo function of the 5' flanking region of mouse estrogen receptor beta gene.
abstract: The estrogen receptor (ER) subtypes alpha and beta differentially distributed in tissues, and ERbeta is present preferentially in epididymis, testis, prostate, ovary and lung. Although transcription promoter activity has been found in the 5' flanking (5'f) region of the ERbeta gene, it is not known whether the proximal 5'f region is responsible for the tissue-specific distribution. In the present study, we examined the in vivo promoter activity of this region in transgenic mice with the lacZ reporter. About 2.2 kbp of the proximal 5'f region of ERbeta was cloned and inserted into reporter plasmids. This 5'f region of mouse ERbeta, which displayed a substantial promoter activity in vitro, was very similar to that in rats, but showed limited homology with the human gene. Three independent lines of mice containing ERbeta-5'f-lacZ were obtained. Quantitative measurement of mRNA showed that lacZ was expressed only in the testis, in which sertoli cells as well as a part of the spermatogonia were confirmed to be lacZ-positive, in accordance with the known localization of ERbeta expression in the testis. The present study suggests that a 2.2 kbp of the 5'f region of the ERbeta gene is able to direct testis-specific expression, but is not itself sufficient to determine the expression in other organs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Biology, Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine (RIRBM), Hiroshima University, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan. nfjm@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Nariaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fujimoto
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.forename: Shigeyuki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kitamura
authors.forename: Shigeru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ohta
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D047629:Estrogen Receptor beta / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D001616:beta-Galactosidase / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D047629:Estrogen Receptor beta; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D001616:beta-Galactosidase