The tripartite basal enhancer of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) receptor gene promoter regulates cell-specific expression through a novel GnRH receptor activating sequence.

The molecular mechanisms regulating restricted expression of GnRH receptor and gonadotropin subunit genes to gonadotrope cells have been the focus of intense interest. Using deletion and mutational analysis we have identified a tripartite enhancer that regulates cell-specific expression of the GnRH receptor gene in the gonadotrope-derived alphaT3-1 cell line. Individual elements of this enhancer include binding sites for steroidogenic factor-1; activator protein 1 (AP-1); and a novel element referred to as the GnRH receptor activating sequence (GRAS). Mutation of each element alone results in loss of approximately 60% of promoter activity. Combinatorial mutations of any two elements decreases promoter activity by approximately 80%. Finally, mutation of all three elements reduces promoter activity to a level not different from promoterless vector. Using 2-bp mutations, we have defined the functional requirements for transcriptional activation by GRAS. The core motif of GRAS is at -391 to -380 bp relative to the start site of translation and has the sequence 5'-CTAGTCACAACA-3'. Three copies of GRAS or GRAS with a 2-bp mutation (muGRAS) were cloned into a luciferase expression vector immediately upstream of the thymidine kinase minimal promoter (TK) and tested for expression in alphaT3-1 cells. When compared with TK promoter alone, activity of 3xGRAS-TKLUC was increased by more than 5-fold while activity of 3xmuGRAS-TKLUC was unchanged. When 3xGRAS-TKLUC was transfected into a variety of nongo-nadotrope cell lines, it did not increase activity of the TK promoter. We propose that basal activity of the GnRH receptor gene is regulated by a tripartite enhancer, and the key component of this enhancer is an element, GRAS, that activates transcription in a cell-specific fashion.