Activation of the mouse proliferating cell nuclear antigen gene promoter by adenovirus type 12 E1A proteins

A plasmid carrying the 5'-flanking region (-1584 to +47 with respect to the transcription initiation site) of the mouse proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) gene was fused with the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene, and then cotransfected into mouse N18TG2 cells with expression plasmids for the adenovirus type 12 E1 genes. Expression of E1A gene products elevated the CAT expression by 5- to 9-fold, but expression of the E1B gene product did not. RNase protection analysis revealed that the activation of the PCNA gene promoter by E1A was at the transcription step. Both the 13S E1A and the 12S E1A activated the PCNA gene promoter, indicating that the activation domain of E1A resides in a common region(s) of 13S and 12S E1A products. The major target region of E1A was mapped within the 68 base-pair region (-21 to +47) of the PCNA gene, which includes consensus sequences for transcription factors PEA3 and E2F, although the upstream region (-83 to -21) including ATF(CREB)-binding consensus had an additional effect in the transactivation.