A conserved CATTCCT motif is required for skeletal muscle-specific activity of the cardiac troponin T gene promoter.

Transcription of the cardiac troponin T (cTNT) gene is restricted to cardiac and embryonic skeletal muscle tissue. A DNA segment containing 129 nucleotides upstream from the cTNT transcription initiation site (cTNT-129) directs expression of a heterologous marker gene in transfected embryonic skeletal muscle cells but is inactive in embryonic cardiac or fibroblast cells. By using chimeric promoter constructions, in which distal and proximal segments of cTNT-129 are fused to reciprocal segments of the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV tk) gene promoter, the DNA segment responsible for this cell specificity can be localized to the cTNT distal promoter region, located between 50 and 129 nucleotides upstream of the transcription initiation site. The ability of the cTNT distal promoter region to confer skeletal muscle-specific activity upon a heterologous promoter is abolished when it is displaced 60 nucleotides upstream, indicating that its ability to direct skeletal muscle-specific transcription probably requires proximity to other components of the transcription initiation region. Two copies of the heptamer, CATTCCT ("muscle-CAT" or "M-CAT" motif), reside within the 80-nucleotide cTNT distal promoter region. A 3-nucleotide mutation in one of these copies inactivates the cTNT promoter in skeletal muscle cells. Therefore, the M-CAT motif is a distal promoter element required for expression of the cTNT promoter in embryonic skeletal muscle cells. Since the M-CAT motif is found in other contractile protein gene promoters, it may represent one example of a muscle-specific promoter element.