The aldolase A promoter in proliferating rat thymocytes is regulated by a cluster of SP1 sites and a distal modulator.

In mitogen-stimulated rat thymocytes the activities and mRNA levels of aldolase A increase remarkably during proliferation pointing to a transcriptional regulation of this enzyme. By DNAse I footprinting and mobility shift competition assays five binding sites for the activating transcription factor Sp1 and one site for an AP-1 like nuclear factor could be identified in the core activating region of the proximal aldolase AH1 promoter downstream of -400. Transfection data and differences found in nuclear protein binding of resting and proliferating cells to DNA sites suggest that Sp1 is an integral part of the mechanism by which the AH1 promoter achieves high level transcription during proliferation. Moreover we demonstrate that an element between positions -1066/-731 significantly attenuates the AH1 promoter driven transcription as well as transcription regulated by the heterologous SV40 promoter. From this effect a functional linkage between the distal muscle-restricted M1 promoter and the active AH1 promoter can be suggested.