Cloning and sequence analysis of the promoter region of the MRP gene of HL60 cells isolated for resistance to adriamycin.

Non-P-glycoprotein multidrug resistance of HL60/ADR cells appears to be related to overexpression of the MRP gene. Recent studies suggest that this gene may play an important role in a new form of cell resistance to certain chemotherapeutic agents. To examine mechanisms regulating transcriptional activity of this gene, a 2.2-kilobase 5'-flanking sequence of MRP has been isolated from a genomic library prepared from HL60/ADR cells. The 2.2-kilobase DNA fragment linked to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene in a reporter plasmid was found to be capable of driving expression of this gene in transient transfection experiments. This DNA containing promoter activity has been sequenced in its entirety and found to contain multiple putative regulatory sites. A series of deletion mutants linked to the CAT reporter gene was used to examine functional domains of the 2.2-kilobase sequence. The results suggest that promoter activity is contained in nucleotides -91 to +103 in a GC-rich region of the MRP genome. Promoter activity contained within this sequence, however, is modulated by both positive and negative regulatory elements. Certain of the regulatory sites contain consensus sequences for positive and negative regulatory elements which have been found in the promoter regions of other genes. Primer extension analysis indicates the presence of multiple major transcriptional start sites from the MRP promoter. Sequence analysis of MRP genomic and complementary DNAs has defined the exon/intron boundaries and the organization of a portion of the 5'-end region of the MRP genome. The results of these studies thus provide new insight in site-specific domains which may function in the regulation of MRP gene expression.