Promoter characterization and transcriptional regulation of Ncb5or, a novel reductase necessary for pancreatic beta-cell maintenance.

Department of Medicine, Hematology Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, CHRB-05.215, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

Ncb5or is a ubiquitously expressed gene required for beta-cell survival in mice. Examination of mouse tissues demonstrated high levels of expression in the pancreas, heart and kidney. A transcription start site was identified 149 bp upstream from the start codon and transient expression analysis in betaTC3 cells indicated the presence of a core promoter located within 348 bp upstream of this site. Deletion of Region C (-216/-157) resulted in a significant decrease in promoter activity and specific nucleotides located in a region designated C2 were demonstrated to be critical for complex binding. Deletion of Region D (-60/-33), which contains multiple consensus Sp1 sites, resulted in an additional loss of promoter activity. The data presented here identify and characterize the previously unknown promoter of Ncb5or, a reductase critical for beta-cell survival.

PMID: 16814408 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]