Cloning and analysis of the rat gamma-glutamyltransferase gene.

We have isolated and characterized a complete structural gene encoding the enzyme gamma-glutamyltransferase ((5-glutamyl)-peptide:amino acid 5-glutamyltransferase; EC 2.3.2.2). The gene contains 8 exons and spans approximately 12 kilobases. Ras-transformed rat liver epithelial cells and rat kidney express RNAs which differ in length by approximately 0.3 kilobase pair. Comparison of the genomic sequence with kidney gamma GT cDNA sequence indicates that the first exon is noncoding, and nuclease protection and primer extension data have identified a potential kidney transcription start site (defined as +1) for this exon. The site is not associated with a TATA box, but there are two CCAAT boxes (-136 and -599) and two sites (-101 and -746) containing the consensus sequences to which the transcription factor SP1 is known to bind. There is also a sequence at -453 (TGTGGTTG) that is highly homologous to the core sequence (TGTGG(T)3-5G) of SV40 and polyoma viral enhancers.