IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PROMOTER FOR THE HUMAN METASTASIS SUPPRESSOR GENE NM23-H1

The nm23-H1 gene, localized to chromosome 17q21-22, has been demonstra ted in transfection experiments to significantly inhibit the metastati c potential of melanoma and breast carcinoma cell lines. In this study , we report the isolation, sequencing and partial characterization of the nm23-H1 promoter. The nm23-H1 promoter has no TATA box, but it con tains a number of sequences which may bind known transcriptional regul atory proteins (AP-1, CTF/NF1, ACAAAG, and Ets). We have also identifi ed two nonconsensus transcriptional start sites within one of the Ets binding sites. Nuclear proteins from HeLa cells bound specifically to a 95 bp region of the nm23-H1 promoter which harbors the CTF/NF1 recog nition consensus sequence, suggesting that CTF/NF1 may play a role in nm23-H1 expression.