The Atlantic Salmon MHC class II alpha and beta promoters are active in mammalian cell lines.

The major histocompatibility complex class II (MHCII) genes are only constitutively expressed in certain immune response cells such as B cells, macrophages, dendritic cells and other antigen presenting cells. This cell specific expression pattern and the presence of conserved regions such as the X-, X2-, Y-, and W-boxes make the MHCII promoters especially interesting as vector constructs. We tested whether the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) MHCII promoters can function in cell lines from other organisms. We found that the salmon MHCII alpha and MHCII beta promoters could drive expression of a LacZ reporter gene in adherent lymphoblast cell lines from dog (DH82) and rabbit (HybL-L). This paper shows that the promoters of Atlantic salmon MHCII alpha and beta genes can function in mammalian cell lines.