A characterization of transcriptional regulatory elements in chicken ribosomal protein L37a gene

Abstract

Transcriptional control elements of chicken ribosomal protein L37a gene were characterized in terms of their activities to promote transcription and their protein binding activities. The region -120 to +168 was necessary for the maximal expression of the promoter-less CAT gene in a transfected chicken cell line. Using the DNase I protection assay, we identified nine protein binding regions distributed in a wide range of -122 to +195. The sequences of most of the elements are conserved among many vertebrate ribosomal protein genes at similar positions of the promoters. These common control elements and their binding proteins may coordinate the expression of ribosomal protein genes.