Cloning and in vitro transcription of the Sarcophaga lectin gene

A genomic clone for the Sarcophaga lectin gene was isolated. This gene was a compact single copy gene. Two transcription initiation sites were located by S1 nuclease mapping and primer extension. However, transcription from one of these initiation sites was much greater than that from the other site under all conditions in which this gene was expressed. This gene was found to be transcribed efficiently in a nuclear extract of NIH-Sape-4 cells, an embryonic cell line of Sarcophaga synthesizing Sarcophaga lectin constitutively, but not in that of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells. These results suggested that the former extract contains a specific transcription factor(s) for this gene that is not present in the nuclear extract of Ehrlich cells.