title: Limitation in use of luciferase reporter genes for 3'-untranslated region analysis.
abstract: Luciferase reporter genes are widely used for the functional characterization of regulatory elements in 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR). Using a transient expression assay system with pancreatic cell lines, we demonstrated that luciferase reporter gene constructs show not only the elements with special sequences in 3'-UTR that can affect luciferase activity, but also elements containing random sequences that were ligated into the same site. The extent of the decrease in luciferase activity was dependent on the length of the DNA fragments. Our findings strongly suggested a need to re-examine the 3'-UTR characterizations of many eukaryotic genes which have been studied to date with luciferase reporter genes.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Human Functional Genomics of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing Medical University, Hanzhong Rd. #140, Nanjing, 210029, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lintao
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Rihua
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Feifei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Yujie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D017930:Genes, Reporter / Q000235:genetics*; D049409:Luciferases, Firefly / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D010179:Pancreas / Q000166:cytology; D012323:RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D049409:Luciferases, Firefly