Transcription element responsible for the brain cell-specific expression of the Bombyxin gene that encodes an insect insulin-related peptide

概要

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Invertebrate insulin-related peptides play key roles in growth and metabolism. Genes encoding these peptides are specifically expressed in neurosecretory cells. Bombyxin genes of the silkmoth Bombyx mori encode insulin-related peptides and are expressed in four pairs of the neurosecretory cells in pars intercerebralis of brain. No regulatory element has been identified to confer the neurosecretory cell-specific expression of bombyxin gene. By promoter-deletion analysis and in vitro electroporation, we identified a transcription element essential for the cell-specific expression of bombyxin F1 gene, one of the bombyxin multifamily genes. The element was localized in the region from -170 to -159 bp upstream of the translation start site of the F1 gene. We named the element as BOSE, BOmbyxin gene-Specific Element. No protein that would bind to BOSE was found by searching the transcription factors database. In addition, an activator element responsible for increasing the expression level was identified in the region from -185 to -181 bp. The activator element is similar to the core element in gut-specific enhancer region of the mosquito Anopeles gambiae trypsin gene and the element essential for expression of a Bombyx chorion gene.
社団法人日本動物学会の論文
2001-05-20