CHARACTERIZATION OF THE BOVINE MONOCYTE CHEMOATTRACTANT PROTEIN-1 GENE

Bovine monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (bovine MCP-1) cDNA has rece ntly been characterized and shown to be highly expressed in bovine sem inal vesicles. In an attempt to isolate the MCP-1 gene, we screened a bovine genomic lambda EMBL-3 library with an MCP-1 specific probe pH42 . A positive clone lambda MCP1 was subjected to restriction analysis a nd a pH42-positive EcoRI-fragment of 3.8 kb was subcloned and sequence d. The bovine MCP-1 gene consists of three exons separated by two intr ons. We undertook to identify homologous sequences 5'-upstream of the transcriptional start site within the genes of rat, mouse, human and b ovine MCP-1. Six conserved sequence stretches located within 400 bp up stream of the transcriptional start site in MCP-I genes were detected. Interestingly an approximately 45 bp long region, displaying identiti es in the range of 68-72% relative to the human sequence, covers in th e rat gene the -141/-88 region responsible for TPA induction of gene e xpression. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.