Characteristics of the Promoter in Hu Sheep.

The gene is involved in the growth and development of hair follicles but its regulation mechanism is unclear. We studied the regulation mechanism of the promoter by cloning the proximal promoter of for bioinformatics analysis. A series of missing vectors was then constructed for dual-fluorescein activity detection based on the bioinformatics analysis results. We tested transcription-factor binding-site mutations and transcription factor over-expression to analyze the transcriptional regulation principle of the promoter region. The upstream transcriptional regulatory region of the gene proximal promoter was predicted by bioinformatics. There were -1216 bp to -1166 bp and -632 bp to -582 bp transcription initiation sites in the upstream transcriptional regulatory region of the gene proximal promoter. The CpG islands' distribution showed that there were many CpG islands at -549 bp to 1 bp. A dual-luciferase assay revealed high activity between -758 bp and -545 bp in the core region and a possible binding site for transcription factors and . The transcriptional activity of was significantly decreased in the transcriptional regulatory region of the after and mutation. Transcription was significantly enhanced by over expression of the transcription factor, which strongly suggests that and play important roles in regulation.