Jarrell K A, Meselson M
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Jan 1;88(1):102-4. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.1.102.
We describe a 98-base-pair region (-38 to +60) in the long terminal repeat of the Drosophila gypsy retrotransposon that is sufficient for accurate normal-level transcription. We find that, unlike most RNA polymerase II (pol II) promoters, the gypsy promoter includes downstream sequences that are required for full activity. Also unlike most pol II promoters, the gypsy promoter, which lacks a TATA motif, was found to have an essential sequence at the transcription initiation site, mutation of which abolishes transcription. These three uncommon features of the gypsy promoter may be characteristic of a subset of pol II promoters, exemplified by certain retrotransposons and developmental genes of Drosophila and by Tdt, the mouse terminal deoxynucleotidyl-transferase (TdT) gene.
我们描述了果蝇gypsy逆转录转座子长末端重复序列中的一个98个碱基对的区域（-38至+60），该区域足以实现准确的正常水平转录。我们发现，与大多数RNA聚合酶II（pol II）启动子不同，gypsy启动子包含对其充分活性必不可少的下游序列。同样与大多数pol II启动子不同，缺乏TATA基序的gypsy启动子在转录起始位点具有一个必需序列，该序列的突变会消除转录。gypsy启动子的这三个不寻常特征可能是pol II启动子一个子集的特征，果蝇的某些逆转录转座子和发育基因以及小鼠末端脱氧核苷酸转移酶（TdT）基因Tdt就是例证。
