Genomic organization and the promoter region of the round-spotted pufferfish (Tetraodon fluviatilis) CDC37 gene

Abstract The CDC 37 gene was isolated from a round-spotted pufferfish genomic library and characterized. This gene is composed of nine exons spanning 3.5 kb. Exon 1 contains the 5′-untranslated region and exon 2 contains the putative translation initiation site. By 5′-RACE (rapid amplication of cDNA ends) and sequence analysis, we deduced the promoter region for the CDC 37 gene and found that it does not contain typical TATA or CCAAT box. The 1.8 kb DNA fragment upstream of the putative transcription initiation site contains numerous potential binding sites for transcription factors including CREB, E2A, Ets-1, GATA, NF-IL6 and PEA3. When this DNA fragment was placed upstream of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene and transfected into a carp CF cell line, it could drive the synthesis of CAT enzyme four times more efficiently than the promoterless pCAT-Basic did. In addition, the CDC 37 gene is linked to the TYK 2 gene in a tail-to-head manner with a small intergenic region of 292 bp.