Conserved gene structure and transcription factor sites in the human and mouse deoxycytidine kinase genes

Deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) phosphorylates several anti-cancer and anti-vira l nucleoside analogs. The enzyme is predominantly expressed in lymphoid tis sues regulated by an unknown mechanism, We have cloned and sequenced the 20 kbp mouse dCK gene and approximate to 1.7 kbp of the 5' flanking regions o f both the human and mouse dCK genes. Five major inter-species conserved mo tifs were identified in the 5' region including the transcription initiatio n region, an SP1 site and two closely located putative octamer transcriptio n factor sites, Luciferase reporter experiments showed that the human dCK 5 ' region efficiently initiated transcription but no tissue regulatory eleme nt could be identified. (C) 2000 Federation of European Biochemical Societi es. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.