Abstract
Recent studies in which cloned immunoglobulin genes were introduced into cultured cells have produced two significant findings. First, the genes are expressed after transfection into lymphoid cells but not non-lymphoid cells1â3. Second, transcription of an immunoglobulin gene requires, in addition to the promoter region, an enhancer element located downstream of the transcription start site4â10. These findings raise the question of whether it is the promoter or the enhancer region that is responsible for the observed cell-type specificity. It has, in fact, been shown that immunoglobulin enhancers function only in lymphoid cells6,8,9. We show here that the promoter for an immunoglobulin Îș light-chain gene also is strongly specific for lymphoid cells. Our result re-emphasizes the importance of promoters relative to enhancers in determining which cells express which genes.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Falkner, F. & Zachau, H. Nature 298, 286â288 (1982).
Stafford, J. & Queen, C. Nature 306, 77â79 (1983).
Gillies, S. & Tonegawa, S. Nucleic Acids Res. 11, 7981â7997 (1983).
Queen, C. & Baltimore, D. Cell 33, 741â748 (1983).
Queen, C. & Stafford, J. Molec. cell. Biol. 4, 1042â1049 (1984).
Picard, D. & Shaffner, W. Nature 307, 80â83 (1984).
Bergman, Y., Rice, D., Grosschedl, R. & Baltimore, D. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 81, 7041â7045.
Gillies, S. D., Morrison, S. L., Oi, V. T. & Tonegawa, S. Cell 33, 717â728 (1983).
Banerji, J., Olson, L. & Schaffner, W. Cell 33, 729â740 (1983).
Neuberger, M. EMBO J. 2, 1373â1379 (1983).
Seidman, J. G. & Leder, P. Nature 276, 79â795 (1978).
Southern, P. J. & Berg, P. J. Molec. appl. Genet. 1, 327â341 (1982).
Deans, R., Denis, K. A., Taylor, A. & Wall, R. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 81, 1292â1296 (1984).
Tooze, J. (ed.) DNA Tumor Viruses (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 1980).
de Villiers, J. & Schaffner, W. Nucleic. Acids Res. 9, 6251â6264 (1981).
Laimins, L. A., Gruss, P., Pozzatti, R. & Khoury, G. J. Virol. 49, 183â189 (1984).
Max, E. E., Maizel, J. V. & Leder, P. J. biol. Chem. 256, 5116â5120 (1981).
Laimins, L. A., Khoury, G., Gorman, C., Howard, B. & Gruss, P. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 79, 6453â6457 (1982).
de Villers, J., Olson, L., Tyndall, C. & Schaffner, W. Nucleic Acids Res. 10, 7965â7975 (1982).
Berk, A. J. & Sharp, P. A. Cell 12, 721â732 (1977).
Weaver, R. F. & Weissmann, C. Nucleic Acids Res. 6, 1175â1192 (1979).
Reddy, V. B., Ghosh, P. K., Lebowitz, P., Piatak, M. & Weissman, S. M. J. Virol. 30, 279â296 (1979).
Falkner, F. G. & Zachau, H. G. Nature 310, 71â74 (1984).
Parslow, T. G., Blair, D. L., Murphy, W. J. & Granner, D. K. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 81, 2650â2654.
Faulkner, F. G., Neumann, E. & Zachau, H. Hoppe-Seyler's Z. physiol. Chem. 365, 1331â1343.
Lopata, M. A., Cleveland, D. W. & Sollner-Webb, B. Nucleic Acids Res. 12, 5707â5717 (1984).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Foster, J., Stafford, J. & Queen, C. An immunoglobulin promoter displays cell-type specificity independently of the enhancer. Nature 315, 423â425 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/315423a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/315423a0
This article is cited by
-
Genetic analysis of transcription factors implicated in B lymphocyte development
Immunologic Research (1994)
-
An octamer oligonucleotide upstream of a TATA motif is sufficient for lymphoid-specific promoter activity
Nature (1987)
-
A lymphoid-specific protein binding to the octamer motif of immunoglobulin genes
Nature (1986)
-
Interaction of cell-type-specific nuclear proteins with immunoglobulin VH promoter region sequences
Nature (1986)
-
Synergism between immunoglobulin enhancers and promoters
Nature (1986)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
