Ov. Mortensen et al., Functional analysis of a novel human serotonin transporter gene promoter in immortalized raphe cells, MOL BRAIN R, 68(1-2), 1999, pp. 141-148
To investigate the structural basis for genetic regulation of the human ser
otonin transporter gene, a 1.8 kb fragment upstream to the cap site was clo
ned and sequenced. The promoter possesses a polymorphic repeat region with
16 and 14 repeats, respectively. Both were cloned and characterized. The pr
omoter sequence revealed an internal 379 bp fragment not reported in previo
us publications. This novel fragment contains consensus sequences for sever
al transcription factors including SpI and GATA. DNA from 48 unrelated indi
viduals was PCR amplified, in this region, to test for allelic variations.
All were found to possess the additional 379 bp fragment. The integrity of
the promoter was furthermore confirmed by genomic Southern blotting. The pr
omoter activity was analyzed by reporter gene assays in neuronal and non-ne
uronal serotonergic cell lines. In immortalized serotonergic raphe neurons,
RN46A, three cis-acting, cell specific, activating elements and a silencer
were located. One of the activators and the silencer are located in the re
peat region and one activator is positioned in the novel fragment. A fourth
activating element was found to be active in both RN46A cells and in a non
-neuronal serotonergic cell line, JAR. A 3.5 kb fragment from intron 1 was
cloned and found to possess cell specific activity in JAR cells indicating
the presence of an alternative promoter in intron 1. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scie
nce B.V. All rights reserved.