A polypyrimidine/polypurine tract within the Hmga2 minimal promoter: a common feature of many growth-related genes

HMGA2 is an architectural nuclear factor which plays an important role in development and tumorigenesis, but mechanisms regulating its expression are largely unknown. The proximal promoters of the mouse and human genes coding for HMGA2 contain a conserved polypyrimidine/polypurine (ppyr/ppur) element which constitutes a multiple binding site for Sp1 and Sp3 transcription factors. In the present study we report that this region can adopt a single-stranded DNA conformation, as demonstrated in vitro by S1 nuclease sensitivity on supercoiled plasmids, indicative of an intramolecular triple-helical H-DNA structure. Moreover, we find that PTB (polypyrimidine tract binding protein), a member of the hnRNP family, binds the pyrimidine strand of Hmga2 as well as similar ppyr/ppur elements of the c-Ki-ras (R.Y) and c-myc P1 promoters. Transfection experiments indicate that non-B-DNA conformers of the ppyr/ppur tract of the Hmga2 promoter contribute to positive transcriptional activity. We propose a transcriptional mechanism, acting on the Hmga2 non-B-DNA structure and functioning through interconversion between double-stranded and single-stranded DNA, that seems to be adopted by an increasing number of genes, mainly growth-related.