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Structure of the rat pro‐opiomelanocortin (POMC) gene
Author(s) -
Drouin Jacques,
Chamberland Michel,
Charron Jean,
Jeannotte Lucie,
Nemer Mona
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(85)80078-8
Subject(s) - enhancer , gene , exon , glucocorticoid receptor , biology , tata box , glucocorticoid , transcription (linguistics) , genetics , microbiology and biotechnology , transcription factor , gene expression , promoter , endocrinology , linguistics , philosophy
The gene encoding pro‐opiomelanocortin (POMC) presents unique regulatory features. In particular, glucocorticoids inhibit transcription of the POMC gene in the anterior pituitary, but not in the intermediate pituitary. In order to study the mechanism leading to transcriptional inhibition of POMC by glucocorticoid and the interaction of the glucocorticoid receptor complex with specific DNA sequences along the POMC gene, we have cloned the rat POMC gene and determined its structure. The gene is composed of three exons and appears to be present at a single copy per haploid genome. Besides the usual regulatory signals like ‘TATA’ and ‘CCAAT’ boxes, the upstream region contains sequences homologous to known enhancer sequences and to the glucocorticoid receptor binding site observed in glucocorticoid‐responsive genes.