Functional analysis of the promoter and 3’UTR microsatellite motifs of the human fibroblast growth factor 9 gene

• Main Authors: Tsung-Ming Chen, 陳琮明
• Other Authors: Hsiao - Fang Sunny Sun
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/19322035453557649247

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 分子醫學研究所 === 92 === Fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9) is the ninth member of FGF family, and functions as a secreted mitogen for several kinds of cells. Sequences of FGF9 gene are highly conserved from C. elegans to human, indicating that functions of FGF9 are very important. Mouse Fgf9 mRNA are detected in several tissues during embryogenesis, and highly expressed in adult kidney and brain. Ectopic expression of FGF9 in mice reveals that FGF9 is the core regulator for bone and eye development. Moreover, Fgf9 knock-out mice exhibit lung hypoplasia, early postnatal death, and male to female sex reversal. These studies suggested that FGF9 is a multifunctional protein, which plays important roles in embryonic development, organ development, sexual development and physiologic maintenances. However, limited studies about FGF9 gene regulation in human have been reported. By sequence analysis, several microsatellite (MS) motifs as well as many transcription factors (TF) binding sites were found in the FGF9 gene. Currently more and more studies have demonstrated that MS motifs in noncoding region could play important roles in gene regulation. The aims of this study are to illustrate potential effects of these MS motifs and TF binding sites in regulating FGF9 gene expression. The 3’UTR MS motif and a 2.2 kb DNA fragment upstream from the FGF9 transcriptional starting site have been cloned and analyzed by using reporter gene system. Our data showed that the MS motif of FGF9 3’UTR can modulate FGF9 gene expression in a tissue-specific manner. In addition, from serial deletion analysis of FGF9 5’ promoter region showed that the -799~-712 interval and 5’UTR regions of the FGF9 gene are important for gene expression.