STRUCTURE OF THE GROWTH HORMONE-ENCODING GENE AND ITS PROMOTER IN MICE

The isolation and nucleotide sequence determination of the 5' flanking region of the mouse growth hormone (mGH)-encoding gene (mGH) is descr ibed. The mGH gene consists of five exons and four introns, as is obse rved in other mammalian species. The second intron in mGH is much smal ler than its rat counterpart, thus being similar in size to human, bov ine and porcine GH. The transcription start point was determined to be a C residue 62 bp upstream from the start codon, ATG. Analysis of 176 7 bp of the 5' flanking region, with respect to putative regulatory el ements, revealed a TATA box, two binding sites for growth hormone fact or (GHF1), a GC box (SP1), a thyroid-response element (TRE) and a sile ncer (SiL) sequence motif. As expected, the mGH promoter shows a highe r degree of homology with rat, as compared to the other mammalian spec ies like pig, cattle and human, where an overall homology exists only at the proximal promoter region.