Abstract
The POU domain-containing transcription factor Brain-4 (Brn-4, RHS-2) was examined for its sites of expression and DNA binding preferences. In the rat, Brn-4 is expressed in 76 and 65% of vasopressin neurons in the paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei, respectively; but in only 10% of corticotropin-releasing factor neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. From these data we speculate that genes expressed within vasopressinergic neurons are more likely to be regulated by Brn-4 than those in corticotropin-releasing factor neurons. Random oligonucleotide site selection indicates Brn-4 prefers binding the DNA element CAATATGCTAAT and is inflexible in its spacing requirement between putative CAATAT and TAAT half sites, preferring 2 nucleotides between these elements. Electrophoretic mobility shift and DNase I footprinting analyses show five regions between nucleotides -457 and +22 of the Brn-4 promoter that are bound by Brn-4. Furthermore, Brn-4 can transactivate from this region of the Brn-4 promoter, suggesting that Brn-4 expression may be autoregulated.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 209-221 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Molecular Brain Research |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 1996 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Autoregulation
- Gene regulation
- Hypothalamus
- In situ hybridization
- Neuropeptide
- POU
- Transcription factor
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Molecular Biology
- Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience