STRUCTURE AND EXPRESSION OF THE HUMAN GATA3 GENE

GATA3, a member of the GATA family that is abundantly expressed in the T-lymphocyte lineage, is thought to participate in T cell receptor ge ne activation through binding to enhancers. To understand GATA3 gene r egulation, we cloned the human gene and the 5' end of the mouse GATA3 gene. We show that the human GATA3 gene contains six exons distributed over 17 kb of DNA. The two human GATA3 zinc fingers are encoded by tw o separate exons highly conserved with those of GATA1, but no other st ructural homologies between these two genes can be found. The human an d mouse GATA3 transcription units start at a major initiation site. Th e promoter sequence analysis of these two genes revealed that they are embedded within a CpG island and share structural features often foun d in the promoters of housekeeping genes. Finally, we show that a DNA fragment containing the human GATA3 transcription unit, 3 kb upstream from the initiation site and 4 kb downstream from the polyadenylation site, displays T-cell specificity. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.