Identification of a tau promoter region mediating tissue-specific-regulated expression in PC12 cells

Einat Sadot, Alice Heicklen-Klein, Jacob Barg, Philip Lazarovici, Irith Ginzburg*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalEditorial

39 Scopus citations

Abstract

Tau, a microtubule-associated protein, is encoded by a single gene, the expression of which is neuron-specific and developmentally regulated. When PC12 cells are exposed to nerve growth factor (NGF), they differentiate to sympathetic-like neurons. This differentiation process is accompanied by an elevation of tau proteins and mRNA. Here, we describe, for the first time, the isolation and characterization of a tau promoter region. We show that the promoter of tau is G + C-rich, lacks a genuine TATA box and thus promotes multiple initiation sites of RNA transcription. Our results demonstrate that a region of approximately 335 base-pairs residing immediately upstream of tau exon -1 are able to direct positive control of neuron-specific activity of the luciferase reporter gene. The isolation of tau promoter will facilitate further studies of the regulation of tau expression during development and aging of neuronal cells.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)805-812
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Molecular Biology
Volume256
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Mar 1996

Keywords

  • EGF
  • Neuronal promoter
  • NGF
  • PC12 cells
  • Tau

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