Abstract
The PCK gene, encoding cytosolic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, is specifically expressed in gluconeogenic tissues, liver and kidney. Hence it serves as a model of a class of single-copy genes whose transcription is restricted to a few tissues, rather than a unique tissue. To begin delineating the mechanisms that govern this pattern of expression, cis-regulatory elements of PCK were examined using transient transfection assays in PCK-expressing kidney and hepatoma cell lines. The analyses enabled us to identify a proximal element, between nucleotide (nt) positions -121 and -98, relative to the transcription start point that is sufficient for specific expression in kidney cells, but is just one of the elements required for expression in hepatoma cells. A distal element (between nt -487 and -417), which is essential for hepatoma-specific expression, is not needed in kidney cells. We suggest that the differential regulation of PCK expression in the liver and kidney results from an interplay between different cis-regulatory elements and trans-acting factors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 279-283 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Gene |
| Volume | 101 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 30 May 1991 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Hannah Cohen for technical assistance. This work was supported by BSF grant 88-00264a nd by a Basic Research Foundation grant administered by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Hum~ities.
Keywords
- Cell specificity
- DNA-mediated gene transfer
- gene expression
- hepatoma cells
- kidney cells
- nuclear factor-1
- recombinant DNA