CHARACTERIZATION OF THE BOVINE PRION PROTEIN GENE - THE EXPRESSION REQUIRES INTERACTION BETWEEN THE PROMOTER AND INTRON

We cloned the part of the bovine PrP gene which contains the 5'-flanki ng region, exon 1, exon 2 and intron 1 to analyze its promoter region. The 5' non-coding region of the bovine PrP gene consisted of three ex ons and two introns, and its organization was similar to that of the m ouse, rat and sheep PrP genes. The 5'-flanking region of the bovine Pr P gene from the transcription start site to nucleotide position -88 wa s (G+C)-rich (78%) and contained three potential binding sites for the transcription factor Spl, but no CCAAT-box or TATA-box. This region s howed high homology (89%) with that of the sheep PrP gene, but relativ ely low homology (approximately 46-62%) with the same region of the mo use, rat, hamster and human PrP genes. The position from -88 to -30 wi thin the 5'-flanking region of the bovine PrP gene showed major promot er activity. However, this region was able to function properly only i n collaboration with the region at +123 to +891 of intron 1 of the bov ine PrP gene.