Synergistic interactions between Pit-1 and other elements are required for effective somatotroph rat growth hormone gene expression in transgenic mice.
The role of the pituitary-specific POU-domain protein, Pit-1, in GH gene activation has been established by in vitro analyses and by the observation that mutations affecting the Pit-1 genomic locus result in genetically transmitted dwarfism. To define the quantitative contribution of the two Pit-1 response elements and the potential role of other factors in GH gene activation, we systematically assessed the ability of a series of GH promoter regions to activate transgenes in the mouse anterior pituitary gland. These studies revealed that the two GH Pit-1 binding sites are necessary, but not sufficient, for efficient transcriptional activation. Transgenes containing information including only these cis-active regions are expressed at extremely low levels in the pituitary glands of transgenic mice. The addition of 35 base pairs of 5'-flanking information, contributing other elements including a thyroid hormone/retinoic acid response element, results in much higher levels of transgene expression. Sequences located upstream of this segment contribute a further 5- to 10-fold activation. Thus, while Pit-1 is required for GH gene activation, it alone can only direct minimal expression in transgenic animals. Rather, synergistic interactions between other promoter elements and Pit-1 appear to be required for expression of the transgenes at approximately the 100-fold higher levels that are characteristic of somatotrophs, and are therefore likely to be critical components of somatotroph-specific expression of the GH gene.[1]References
- Synergistic interactions between Pit-1 and other elements are required for effective somatotroph rat growth hormone gene expression in transgenic mice. Lira, S.A., Kalla, K.A., Glass, C.K., Drolet, D.W., Rosenfeld, M.G. Mol. Endocrinol. (1993) [Pubmed]
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