GENOMIC ORGANIZATION OF THE GENES FOR HUMAN AND MOUSE CC CHEMOKINE LEC

Liver-expressed chemokine (LEC) is a CC chemokine that is selectively expressed in the liver. We report here the structures of the human and mouse genes for LEC. The human LEC gene (SCYA16) was isolated from a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clone that also contained CC chemokine genes for MPIF-1/C k beta 8, HC C2/Lkn-1/MIP-5/M IP-1 delta, and HC C-1. The LEC gene is approximately 5.0 kb in length and has a three-exon and two-intron structure common to most C C chemokine genes. However, the promoter region is devoid of a typical TATA box, and transcription initiates at multiple sites. The gene for CC chemokine HC C-1, which is most similar to LEC, is located approximately 2.2 kb upstream from the 5' end of the LEC gene in a headto-tail fashion. The mouse DNA fragment that hybridized with the human LEC cDNA was isolated from a BAC clone that also contained the CC chemokine genes for C 10, MRP-2/CC F18/MIP-1 gamma, and RANTES. Sequence analysis revealed that the isolated gene does not encode a functio...