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. 1997 Jun 1;25(11):2213–2220. doi: 10.1093/nar/25.11.2213

Molecular and functional characterization of the promoter region of the mouse LDH/C gene: enhancer-assisted, Sp1-mediated transcriptional activation.

J Yang 1, K Thomas 1
PMCID: PMC146730  PMID: 9153323

Abstract

Molecular and functional studies of the LDH/C 5' upstream promoter elements were undertaken to elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved in temporal activation of LDH/C gene expression in differentiating germ cells. Ligation mediated-PCR (LM-PCR) gene walking techniques were exploited to isolate a 2.1 kb fragment of the mouse LDH/C 5' promoter region. DNA sequence analysis of this isolated genomic fragment indicated that the mouse LDH/C promoter contained TATA and CCAT boxes as well as a GC-box (Sp1-binding site) situated upstream from the transcription start site. PCR-based in vivo DNase I footprinting analysis of a 600 bp fragment of the proximal LDH/C promoter region (-524/+38) in isolated mouse pachytene spermatocytes identified a single footprint over the GC-box motif. Three DNase I hypersensitive sites were also detectable in vivo, in a region containing (CT)n(GA)n repeats upstream from the CCAT box domain. Functional characterization of the promoter region was carried out in a rat C6 glioma cell line and an SV40 transformed germ cell line (GC-1 spg) using wild-type and mutated LDH/C promoter CAT reporter constructs. These studies provide experimental evidence suggesting that transcriptional activation of the LDH/C promoter is regulated by enhancer-mediated coactivation of the Sp1 proteins bound to the GC-box motif footprinted in vivo in pachytene spermatocytes.

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Selected References

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