Mm. Wang et al., GENES ENCODING COMPONENTS OF THE OLFACTORY SIGNAL-TRANSDUCTION CASCADE CONTAIN A DNA-BINDING SITE THAT MAY DIRECT NEURONAL EXPRESSION, Molecular and cellular biology, 13(9), 1993, pp. 5805-5813
Genes which mediate odorant signal transduction are expressed at high
levels in neurons of the olfactory epithelium. The molecular mechanism
governing the restricted expression of these genes likely involves ti
ssue-specific DNA binding proteins which coordinately activate transcr
iption through sequence-specific interactions with olfactory promoter
regions. We have identified binding sites for the olfactory neuron-spe
cific transcription factor, Olf-1, in the sequences surrounding the tr
anscriptional initiation site of five olfactory neuron-specific genes.
The Olf-1 binding sites described define the consensus sequence YTCCC
YRGGGAR. In addition, we have identified a second binding site, the U
site, in the olfactory cyclic nucleotide gated channel and type III cy
clase promoters, which binds factors present in all tissues examined.
These experiments support a model in which expression of Olf-I in the
sensory neurons coordinately activates a set of olfactory neuron-speci
fic genes. Furthermore, expression of a subset of these genes may be m
odulated by additional binding factors.