title: An evolutionarily conserved non-coding element in casein locus acts as transcriptional repressor.
abstract: In mammals, the casein locus consists of stretches of non-coding DNA, the functions of most of which are unknown. These regions are believed to harbour elements responsible for spatio-temporally regulated expression of genes in this locus and so far, only a few such elements have been identified. In this study, we report a novel regulatory element in the casein locus. Comparative analysis of genomic DNA sequences of casein loci from different mammals identified a 147bp long evolutionarily conserved region (ECR) upstream of Odam, a gene in this locus. The ECR was found in close proximity of Odam gene in all the mammals examined. In-silico analysis predicted the ECR as a potential regulatory element. Functional analysis in different cell lines identified it as a unidirectional repressor element. From our findings we speculate that the ECR may be involved in the repression of the Odam expression in the mammary gland during lactation.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Hyderabad, India. Electronic address: suneesh@uaeu.ac.ae.
authors.forename: Suneesh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaimala
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Hyderabad, India. Electronic address: satishk@ccmb.res.in.
authors.forename: Satish
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D002364:Caseins / Q000235:genetics*; D002417:Cattle; D002460:Cell Line; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008321:Mammary Glands, Animal / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D051381:Rats; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D013045:Species Specificity; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D002364:Caseins; D014157:Transcription Factors
keywords: ECR; Mammary gland; Odam