A point mutation in a silencer module reduces the promoter activity for the human mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase.

A promoter region of human mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase (MST) [EC 2.8.1.2] is G+C-rich and TATA-less, showing features of a house-keeping gene. In the core promoter, a GC box (-284:GGGGCGTGGC:-275) and an initiator (-219:TTATATG:-225) are found. A cap site hunting analysis for human liver cDNA revealed four possible transcriptional start sites, nucleotides -223, -159, -35 and -25. Point mutagenesis and deletion studies suggest that a module of the silencer element is -394:GCTG:-391. A replacement of -391G to C lost the silencer function; on the other hand, a replacement of -394G to T or C, -393C to T or -392T to G markedly reduced the promoter activity.