期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1992
卷号：89
期号：7
页码：2864-2868
DOI：10.1073/pnas.89.7.2864
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：We have identified a DNA segment that confers responsiveness to antigen stimulation signals on the human interleukin (IL) 4 gene in Jurkat cells. The human IL-4 gene, of 10 kilobases, is composed of four exons and three introns. A cis-acting element (P sequence) resides in the 5' upstream region; no additional DNA segments with enhancer activity were identified in the human IL-4 gene. For further mapping purposes, a fusion promoter was constructed with the granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor basic promoter containing 60 base pairs of sequence upstream from the cap site of the mouse granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor gene and various lengths of the 5' upstream sequence of the IL-4 gene. The P sequence was located between positions -79 and -69 relative to the transcription start site of the human IL-4 gene, and this location was confirmed by base-substitution mutations. The plasmids carrying multiple copies of the P sequence showed higher responsiveness to the stimulation. The binding protein(s) that recognize the P sequence of the IL-4 gene were identified by DNA-mobility-shift assays. The binding of NF(P) (a DNA binding protein that specifically recognizes the P sequence) to the P sequence was abolished when oligonucleotides carrying base substitutions were used, indicating that the NF(P) interaction is sequence-specific and that binding specificity of the protein paralleled the sequence requirements for IL-4 expression in vivo. The P sequence does not share homology with the 5' upstream sequence of the IL-2 gene, even though surrounding sequences of the IL-4 gene share high homology with the IL-2 gene. We conclude that a different set of proteins recognize IL-2 and IL-4 genes.
