Identification of Two Alternative Promoters of the Pig CMP-N-Acetylneuraminic Acid Hydroxylase Gene

Abstract

We identify the two alternative promoter regions, and name the 5’flanking region of exon 1a the P1 promoter, and the 5’flanking region of exon 0 the P2 promoter. The P2 promoter is active in both PK15 pig kidney cells and IPI- 21 pig small intestine cells, and appears to have a higher level of basal activity than the P1 promoter in both cell lines, suggesting that P2 is a housekeeping promoter. In contrast, the P1 promoter is highly active in IPI-2I cells compared to thePK15 cells, where the P1 promoter has only basal activity, suggestive of an intestine-specific promoter. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that the Sp1 transcription factor is akey regulatory element important for the regulation of pcmah expression.