THE INTEGRIN ALPHA(V) GENE - IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PROMOTER REGION

We isolated a 15.5 kilobase pair DNA fragment that contains the 5' end of the human vitronectin receptor alpha subunit (alpha(v)) gene. The nucleotide sequence of the 5' flanking region, first exon and part of the first intron of the alpha(v) gene was determined. The sequence sho wed that the 5' end of the alpha(v) gene lies within a CpG island. The transcriptional initiation site was mapped 169 base pairs upstream of the alpha(v) translational initiation site. The 5' flanking region of the alpha(v) gene does not contain TATA or InR transcriptional contro l elements but does contain four Sp1 binding sites, two Ets binding si tes and one GATA binding site. The identified alpha(v) gene 5' flankin g region directed the expression of human growth hormone in transfecte d HeLa cells. Successive deletions of the 5' flanking region demonstra ted a 222 bp region that exerts a strong positive effect on alpha(v) p romoter activity.