The 5' flanking region of the ornithine transcarbamylase gene contains DNA sequences regulating tissue-specific expression.

Ornithine transcarbamylase (OTCase) is a mitochondrial matrix enzyme that catalyzes the 2nd step in the mammalian urea cycle. The gene encoding OTCase is located on the X chromosome and expression of OTCase is limited almost exclusively to hepatocytes. We have characterized a lambda phage recombinant, isolated from a mouse genomic library, that spans the first two exons of the mouse OTCase gene. Nuclease S1 mapping and primer extension analysis of this clone allowed us to determine that the transcription start site is 136 base pairs (bp) upstream from the translation initiation codon. Two TATA-like sequences were found 25 and 153 bp from the transcription initiation point. An 800-bp fragment containing the 5' flanking region of the OTCase gene was fused upstream to the coding sequence of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene to assay promoter activity. This plasmid was introduced into mouse fibroblast NIH 3T3 cells and human hepatoma Hep G2 cells by the calcium phosphate co-precipitation method. After DNA transfection chloramphenicol acetyltransferase activity was observed only in Hep G2 cells. We conclude that this 800-bp fragment contains sufficient information to control OTCase gene expression in a tissue-specific manner, probably by interacting with trans-acting factor(s) which are not present in the other cell line.