Macromolecular interaction on a cAMP responsive region in the urokinase-type plasminogen activator gene: a role of protein phosphorylation.

We have studied the regulation of urokinase-type plasminogen activator gene expression by cAMP in LLC-PK1 cells. We found a cAMP responsive region 3.4 kb upstream of the transcription initiation site, which comprised three protein-binding domains designated A, B, and C. Domains A and B both contain a sequence, TGACG, homologous to a consensus cAMP response element (CRE; TGACGTCA). Effective cAMP-mediated induction was achieved when these two domains were linked with domain C, which by itself did not confer cAMP responsiveness to a heterologous promoter nor contained CRE-like sequence, suggesting a functional cooperation among these domains. Results of competition studies using gel retardation and DNase I footprinting assays suggest that there is a protein-protein interaction between a CRE binding protein and a domain C binding protein. In gel retardation assays, binding of a nuclear protein to domains A and B was strongly augmented by addition of the catalytic subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, whereas the protein binding to domain C was slightly inhibited, suggesting that protein phosphorylation is involved in the regulation of protein-DNA interaction.