The genomic structure and transcriptional regulation of the rat apelin receptor (APJR) were analysed by rapid amplification of 5' cDNA ends (5'-RACE), transient expression assays and DNA-protein interaction. Analysis of the 5'-flanking region of a rat genomic clone shows no TATA box, but a putative CAAT box and several putative binding sites for transcription factors are present. Two transcript...

Dystroglycan is a widely expressed adhesion complex that anchors cells to the basement membrane and is involved in embryonic development and differentiation. Dystroglycan expression is frequently reduced in human dystrophies and malignancies, and its molecular functions are not completely understood. Several posttranslational mechanisms have been identified that regulate dystroglycan expression...

Xeroderma Pigmentosum is a human disease, which is, among others, characterized by a high incidence of (sunlight induced) skin cancer, due to a defect in nucleotide excision repair (NER). The human DNA repair gene XPAC corrects this defect in cells isolated from Xeroderma Pigmentosum complementation group A (XP-A) patients. To enable the development of a transgenic mouse model for XP-A by gene ...

The entire nucleotide sequence of the rat acyl-peptide hydrolase gene including its 5* and 3' flanking region is presented here. Previously, the isolation of the rat acyl-peptide hydrolase (1) and its cDNA (2) were reported. By sequential screening with the cDNA and a 5 cDNA fragment, two overlapping genomic clones (APHE5 and APHH6) were isolated from two Charon 4A rat genomic libraries. From t...

Telomerase activation is thought to be a critical step in cellular immortalization and carcinogenesis. Of the three major subunits comprising human telomerase, human telomerase catalytic subunit (hTERT) has been shown to be a rate-limiting determinant of the enzymatic activity of human telomerase. However, little is known concerning how expression of hTERT is regulated in human cells. To identi...

A chicken genomic library was screened with the human cDNA encoding the non-histone chromosomal protein HMG-17 and a 4565-base pair fragment containing the entire gene encoding this protein was isolated and characterized. Sequence analysis of the fragment revealed that from the start to end of transcription, the HMG-17 gene is 3293 base pairs long and is comprised of 6 exons ranging in size fro...

A genomic cosmid clone for human sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), a liver-secreted plasma glycoprotein that binds sex steroids, was isolated with a previously characterized liver cDNA as probe. Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA indicated that only one SHBG gene is present in the human haploid genome. A 3.8 Kb Xba I-fragment of the clone containing the entire coding region of SHBG was se...

Lamprin is a unique structural protein which forms the extracellular matrix of several cartilaginous structures found in the lamprey. Lamprin is noncollagenous in nature but shows sequence similarities to elastins and to insect structural proteins. Here, we characterize the structure and organization of lamprin genes, demonstrating the presence of multiple similar but not identical copies of th...

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii adapts to the stress of CO(2)-limiting conditions through the induction of a set of genes including CAH1, which encodes a periplasmic carbonic anhydrase. CAH1 is up-regulated under low-CO(2) conditions (air containing 0.04% [v/v] CO(2)) in the presence of light, whereas it is down-regulated under high-CO(2) conditions (5% [v/v] CO(2)) or in the dark. In an effort to id...

Two overlapping genomic clones for a rat nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDP kinase) have been isolated and characterized. Complete sequencing of the genomic segment including the whole coding region for the enzyme revealed that the gene consists of four exons spanning 5.5 kilobase pairs. Primer extension analyses and ribonuclease protection assays indicated that the transcription may start from...