Evolution of promoter sequences: elements of a canonical promoter for prespore genes of Dictyostelium.

An attempt is made to define a minimal prespore promoter which contains all elements essential for correct regulation of expression of a prespore gene. The prespore genes of Dictyostelium are coregulated during development. Most begin transcription at the same early stage, and activity of all is restricted to prespore tissue during the later slug stage. Sequences 5' to the coding sequences of eight prespore genes were searched for all elements proposed to control transcription and for new elements. The meaningfulness of occurrences of elements and pairs of elements in prespore promoters was evaluated by comparison with frequencies of occurrences in promoters of other, nonprespore genes. These comparisons resulted in definition of a canonical prespore promoter, a stretch of about 200 nucleotides containing at least one of each of three elements. Certain limitations were found on the spacing of elements. Orientation of elements with respect to each other appeared unrestricted. All elements often occurred in multiple copies. This structure suggests that individual copies of each element are not conserved during evolution, but instead continually appear and disappear.