Comparison of intestinal phospholipase A/lysophospholipase and sucrase-isomaltase genes suggest a common structure for enterocyte-specific promoters.

Intestinal phospholipase A/lysophospholipase (IPAL) is an intestine-specific brush-border enzyme expressed during development and along the intestinal crypt-villus axis in a pattern similar to another well characterized brush-border enzyme, sucrase-isomaltase (SI). A tissue-specific DNase I hypersensitive site was identified in chromatin from intestinal nuclei immediately upstream from the transcriptional start site of the IPAL gene. Footprinting analysis showed that two DNA elements within the IPAL promoter were protected by intestinal nuclear proteins. The IPAL-FP1 element was shown to be a monomer binding site for Cdx1 and Cdx2, intestine-specific homeobox proteins. Moreover, this site was important for transcriptional activation of the promoter in intestinal cell lines via interaction with Cdx proteins. Nuclear proteins from both liver and intestine interacted with the IPAL-FP2 element, forming a complex consistent with binding to HNF1. Cdx and HNF1 binding sites have also been shown to be the two major regulatory elements responsible for transcriptional activation of the SI gene promoter, which directs intestine-specific transcription in transgenic mice. These findings suggest that enterocyte genes that are expressed in similar developmental patterns may be regulated by the interaction of common DNA elements and their associated transcription factors.