Functional analysis of the long terminal repeats of intracisternal A-particle genes: sequences within the U3 region determine both the efficiency and direction of promoter activity.

The transcriptional activity of five intracisternal A-particle (IAP) long terminal repeats (LTRs) in mouse embryonal carcinoma PCC3-A/1 cells and in Ltk- cells was determined. We tested the promoter activity of the LTRs by coupling them to the reporter gene chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) or guanosine-xanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (gpt). Each LTR was tested for promoter function in both the sense (5' to 3') and antisense (3' to 5') orientation preceding the reporter gene. The transcriptional activity of individual IAP gene LTRs varied considerably, and the LTR from IAP81 possessed promoter activity in both directions. The bidirectional activity of the IAP81 LTR confirmed by monitoring Ecogpt expression in stably transfected Ltk- cells, with the initiation sites for sense and antisense transcription being localized to within the IAP81 LTR by S1 nuclease mapping. Deletions of LTR81 show that for normal 5'-to-3' gene transcription (sense direction), the 3'U3/R region determines the basal level of transcription, whereas sequences within the 5'U3 region enhance transcription four- to fivefold. Deletion mapping for antisense transcription indicates that a 64-base-pair region (nucleotides 47 to 110) within the U3 region is essential for activity. These data indicate that the U3 region contains all the regulatory elements for bidirectional transcription in IAP LTRs.