Cloning and characterizing of the murine IRF-3 gene promoter region

The interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF-3) plays essential roles in inflammation and immune response. Here, we cloned the nucleotide sequence of the 5'-flanking region of the murine IRF-3 gene (mIRF-3) and characterized the molecular mechanisms controlling the mIRF-3 transcriptional activity in NIH3T3 cells. Analyses of a series of 5' deletion constructs demonstrated that a 301 bp region (-255/+46) of the mIRF-3 gene is sufficient for full promoter activity. This region contains IK1, Egr2, Cmyb, E2F1 and YY1 putative transcription factor binding sites. Mutation of Egr2 or YY1 site led to 52-68 % decrease of the mIRF-3 promoter activity, and double Egr2 and YY1 mutation reduced the promoter activity to 20 % of the wild-type promoter activity. Furthermore, knockingdown of endogenous Egr2 or YY1 by a siRNA strategy markedly inhibited the mIRF-3 promoter activity. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays showed that Egr2 and YY1 interact with the mIRF-3 promoter in vivo. These results suggested that the basal promoter activity of the mIRF-3 gene is regulated by transcription factors Egr2 and YY1 in NIH3T3 cells.