Separate promoters in the human A1 adenosine receptor gene direct the synthesis of distinct messenger RNAs that regulate receptor abundance.

There are two types of transcripts for the human A1, adenosine receptor. They are expressed in a tissue-specific manner in human tissues and contain distinct exons. Previously, it had appeared that the two transcripts may have occurred through alternative splicing. The transcript beta has two upstream AUG codons, which in transiently transfected COS-7 cells leads to a reduced level of receptor expression. When genomic sequence including sequences 5' to transcriptional start site, exon 1A, intron 1A, exon 1B, intron 1B, exon 2, and coding sequence was inserted into an expression vector (pCMV5/huA1), the resulting transcripts had the same overall structure as the transcripts present in human tissues. Primer extension and 5' rapid amplification of cDNA ends of mRNA from transfected cells revealed the transcription start sites for these two transcripts occurred in what previously had been termed introns. These results were confirmed with similar analysis of mRNA derived from human tissues. Two nonconsensus putative TATA boxes (TTAAGA and TTTAAA) are located upstream of the transcription start sites for transcripts alpha and beta. When the TATA boxes and their flanking sequences were fused to a firefly luciferase gene containing promoterless vector, both demonstrated strong promoter activity in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Promoter A directs the synthesis of transcript alpha, and promoter B directs the synthesis of transcript beta. Promoter A contains a series of AGG elements between the putative TATA box and the transcription start, which accounts for a major portion of the promoter activity based on deletion and mutation analysis. In general, promoter A is more active than promoter B in transfected cells. The nonconsensus TATA box in promoter B plays a more important role in promoter activity than the TATA box in promoter A. The human A1 adenosine receptor gene appears to use two separate promoters to direct synthesis of distinct transcripts, which can then regulate the relative abundance of A1 adenosine receptor in tissues. We have redefined the human A1 adenosine receptor gene structure based on these new data.