C. Quirinstricker et al., TRANSACTIVATION BY THYROID-HORMONE RECEPTORS OF THE 5' FLANKING REGION OF THE HUMAN CHAT GENE, Molecular brain research, 23(3), 1994, pp. 253-265
Fusion gene constructs containing the human choline acetyltransferase
5' flanking region are stimulated by thyroid hormone (T3) in neuronal
NG108-15 and NE1-115 cells but not in non neuronal COS-1 and JEG-3 cel
ls. To identify potential T3 receptor binding elements (T3RE), chimeri
c plasmids containing various lengths of the 5' end of the hChAT gene
linked to the CAT reporter gene were assayed by transient transfection
s into NG108-15, NE1-115 and COS-1 cells. We show that regulation is T
3 specific as estrogen, dexamethasone, dihydrotestosterone, all-trans-
retinoic acid and 9-cis-retinoic acid have no effect. We localized sev
eral potential T3REs and characterized the most proximal T3RE (positio
n 3280-3291) which contains two hexameric half-sites arranged as a dir
ect repeat without a base pair spacer. An oligonucleotide containing t
his sequence confers T3 responsiveness to a heterologous promoter. The
transcriptional response of this T3RE is markedly reduced after mutat
ion of the first or second half-site indicating that both half-sites a
re required for a maximal T3 response. We have found that RAR alpha, R
XR alpha and COUP-TF do not enhance T3 responsiveness and therefore th
ey may not interact with T3R alpha in NG108-15 cells on this regulator
y sequence. T3R monomer and dimer specific binding to the proximal T3R
E is demonstrated by gel-retardation DNA binding assays and by methyla
tion interference experiments. In COS-1 cells, T3R inhibits transcript
ional activation by the transcription factor AP-1 whereas in NE1-115 c
ells T3R enhances AP-1 mediated activation in a T3 dependant fashion.
It is likely that these effects involve protein-protein interactions.
These results suggest that the T3 receptor can act as a positive trans
criptional regulatory factor on the hChAT gene.