Pd. Ponath et al., THE REGULATORY GENE, HXBP-1, AND ITS TARGET, HLA-DRA, UTILIZE BOTH COMMON AND DISTINCT REGULATORY ELEMENTS AND PROTEIN COMPLEXES, The Journal of biological chemistry, 268(23), 1993, pp. 17074-17082
hXBP-1 is a transcription factor of the leucine zipper (b-zip) family
important in the expression of the class II major histocompatibility c
omplex gene, DRA. Studies with mouse-human hybrids have mapped hXBP-1
hybridizing fragments to human chromosomes 5 and 22 and the frequent d
etection of two mRNA transcripts suggested that hXBP-1 may be a member
of a small gene family. To analyze the structure and regulation of hX
BP-1 further, cosmid clones from both chromosomes were isolated. Mappi
ng and sequence analyses reveal that chromosome 22 contains the functi
onal hXBP-1 gene while chromosome 5 contains a processed pseudogene. h
XBP-1 promoter analysis has revealed that cis-active elements within t
he 5'-untranslated region of hXBP-1 are essential for full promoter ac
tivity. One such element, hX2, is identical to the hXBP-1 target seque
nce in the DRA promoter. Mutagenesis of the hX2 site substantially dec
reases promoter activity. This element interacts with four distinct pr
otein complexes in mature B cells and cross-competition experiments sh
ow that two of these complexes (complex 1 and complex 4) also interact
with the hXBP-1 target sequence (X2) from the DRA promoter. The simil
arities of the hXBP-1 promoter and of the DRA promoter (the gene that
the hXBP-1 protein regulates) are further emphasized by the fact that
a Y box element is located 3' of both hX2 and X2.