Structural and functional analysis of a growth-regulated gene, the human calcyclin

Abstract

Calcyclin was originally defined as a cDNA clone (2A9) whose cognate RNA is growth-regulated and whose sequence shows strong similarities to the sequences of the S-100 protein, a calcium-binding protein, as well as to a subunit of the major cellular substrate for tyrosine kinase. Using the full-length cDNA, we have now isolated from a human genomic library several phages containing calcyclin sequences. One of the phages, ch. 28-10, contains the entire calcyclin gene, plus extensive flanking sequences. The calcyclin gene is a unique copy gene and has 3 exons. The 5' flanking sequence has been characterized, both structurally and functionally. Besides a TATA box, it contains, in the region proximate to the cap site, GC boxes and a sequence with a strong homology to the enhancer core of the SV40 promoter. Other enhancer-like elements are found scattered in both the 5' and 3' flanking regions. The proximate 5' flanking region is very active in driving the transient expression of linked reporters in transfection experiments. Finally, the calcyclin gene has been localized to the long arm of human chromosome 1, near the ski oncogene.