An initiation site of DNA replication with transcriptional enhancer activity present upstream of the c-myc gene.

We have previously reported that c-myc protein may promote cellular DNA replication by binding to initiation sites of replication. Here we report that a putative origin of human cellular DNA replication (ori) is present at approximately 2 kb upstream of the coding region of the c-myc gene itself. The c-myc protein, or protein(s) complexed with c-myc protein, bind to the upstream region (approximately 200 bp in length) which has transcriptional enhancer activity as well as autonomously replicating activity in human cells, suggesting that the c-myc protein may be an enhancer binding protein as well as a DNA replication protein. Results with deletion mutants suggest that the sequence essential to the origin of DNA replication may be adjacent to, but cannot be clearly separated from, the sequence responsible for enhancer activity. Furthermore, when cloned DNA containing putative c-myc protein binding sequences was transfected as competitor into HL-60 cells, expression of c-myc was inhibited, suggesting that c-myc protein itself may be necessary for c-myc expression.