Molecular cloning and characterization of the promoter region of the calcineurin A alpha gene.

The 5'-flanking region of the calcineurin A alpha gene was isolated from a rat genomic library. It lacked TATA and CAAT boxes but contained G+C-rich regions, and was demonstrated to function as a strong promoter in neuronal cell lines (NG108-15 mouse neuroblastoma x rat glioma hybrid cells or N1E115 mouse neuroblastoma cells), but not in nonneuronal cell lines (C6 rat glioma or L-M mouse fibroblastoid cells) in a transient chloramphenicol acetyltransferase expression assay. Deletion analysis of the 5'-flanking region revealed that the core promoter region, as well as the sequence critical for cell-type-specific-promoter function, reside within the fragment -107 to +157 with respect to the major transcription initiation site.