COOPERATION OF POSITIVELY AND NEGATIVELY ACTING PROMOTER ELEMENTS DETERMINES PRESPORE-SPECIFIC TRANSCRIPTION OF DP87 GENE IN DICTYOSTELIUM

DpS7 gene in Dictyostelium is a novel prespore-specific gene, whose ex pression is first observed when the aggregation stream is formed, the earliest among prespore-specific genes so far isolated. By 5'-sequenti al deletion analyses, we had previously indicated that the region betw een -447 and -356 is important for transcription. Here we show by deta iled analyses that the regulatory mechanism of the gene is more comple x in that multiple positive and negative regulatory regions including the previously identified region act cooperatively. In addition, we sh ow that the region including the putative TATA box and the transcripti onal start site is required for proper negative regulation of the gene .