ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE HC8 SUBUNIT GENE OF THE HUMAN PROTEASOME

For study of the molecular basis of regulation of proteasome gene expr ession, we isolated the gene encoding the alpha-type HC8 subunit of th e human proteasome. About 2.3 kb of the 5' flanking region of this gen e was tested for promoter function by chloramphenicol acetyltransferas e assay. This analysis revealed that CAAT and TATA boxes, but not a GC box, are essential for its promoter activity. These results differed from previous findings that the genes for the alpha-type HC3 and beta- type HC5 subunits of the human proteasome have a TATA-less promoter an d that two or three GC boxes function as the promoter sequences (Tamur a, T. et al. (1994) J. Mel. Biol. 244, 1117-1124). We mapped the HC8 g ene at q23 on human chromosome 14, which differs from the chromosomal locations of nine other proteasomal subunit genes mapped so far. (C) 1 995 Academic Press, Inc.