Characterization of two atypical promoters and alternate mRNA processing in the mouse Thy-1.2 glycoprotein gene

The promoter and 5' flanking region of the mouse Thy-1.2 glycoprotein gene were characterized by DNA sequencing, primer extension analysis, and deletion analysis. Transcriptional initiation sites were identified which corresponded to two separate exons upstream of the portion of the gene encoding the Thy-1.2 glycoprotein. We demonstrated that the mouse Thy-1.2 gene was transcribed from two atypical promoters separated by 260 base pairs in the genomic sequence. These promoters contained neither TATAAG nor GGPyCCAATCT homologous sequences but defined a conserved nonamer CTCCCTGCT at -48 from each initiation site. Two Thy-1.2 mRNA species of 1,835 and 1,939 nucleotides, differing in the 5' untranslated region of the mRNA, were thus transcribed from the single Thy-1.2 gene by mRNA splicing to the same downstream exon. Recombinant genomes in which the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene was expressed from either of the two Thy-1.2 promoters demonstrated that each promoter functioned independently and did not direct cell-specific expression in lymphoid cells. The 5' flanking region of the Thy-1.2 gene upstream of -68 could be eliminated without altering cell-type-specific expression. This suggests that regulatory elements responsible for tissue and developmental stage-specific expression of the Thy-1.2 gene are not present in the 5' flanking DNA but may reside downstream of the promoters.