The bovine calpastatin gene promoter and a new N-terminal region of the protein are targets for cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity.

To investigate the regulation of calpastatin gene expression, we isolated bovine heart calpastatin cDNAs and 5'-regions of the calpastatin gene. Analysis of 5'-cDNA sequence identified a new translation initiation site that is in frame and 204 nucleotides upstream of the previously designated start site. Conceptual translation from this upstream AUG produces a protein containing 68 additional N-terminal amino acids. This "XL" region contains three potential PKA phosphorylation sites but shares no homology with other regions of calpastatin or with any known protein. Immunoblot studies demonstrated that heart and liver contain a calpastatin protein of 145 kDa on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis that comigrates with full-length bacterially expressed calpastatin and calpastatin produced by coupled in vitro transcription-translation from the upstream AUG. An antibody raised against the XL region recognized the 145-kDa band, demonstrating that the upstream AUG is utilized and that the 145-kDa band represents full-length calpastatin in vivo. Transient transfection assays demonstrated that sequence within 272 nucleotides upstream of transcription initiation of the calpastatin gene is sufficient to direct moderate level transcription. Promoter sequences further upstream act to inhibit or stimulate transcriptional activity. Exposure of transfected cells to dibutyryl cAMP resulted in a 7-20-fold increase in promoter activity for constructs containing at least 272 nucleotides of upstream promoter sequence. Deletion analysis indicates that at least one cAMP-responsive element resides within 102 nucleotides of transcription initiation.