Identification of important regulatory region of Th-POK

概要

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CD4+ and CD8+ T cells develop from CD4+CD8+ thymocytes. Although it has beenreported that expression of the transcription factor Th-POK is important for CD4+ T celldevelopment, the detailed mechanism regulating Th-POK expression is still obscure. Bycomparing the promoter regions of the Th-POK gene between human and mouse, Ifound that the region 3600 base pairs (bps) upstream from the transcription initiationsite of the Th-POK gene was highly conserved. To identify the important element(s) regulatingTh-POK expression in CD4+ T cells, I investigated the promoter activity of this regionusing a luciferase assay in the human T cell line Jurkat. I identified a positive regulatoryelement in this region 22 bps in length located 600 bp upstream from the transcriptioninitiation site. This 22 bp element had a consensus binding sequence for SAP-1,which is encoded by the Elk4 gene and is activated by the Erk pathway. These data suggestthat the 22 bp element might positively regulate Th-POK expression through Erk-SAP-1 signaling.