Transcriptional silencer in intron I of the rat renin gene

In the present study we investigated the influence of intron I of the rat renin gene on the transcriptional activity of its promoter in cell culture. The presence of intron I abolished the transcription of reporter genes (luciferase and lacZ) in the non-renin-expressing human embryonic kidney cell line 293, while it did not significantly affect the activity of the rat renin promoter in rat sceletal myoblast line L8 expressing renin. We conclude from these results that intron I of the rat renin gene contains a tissue-specific silencer element probably also responsible for the transcriptional repression of the endogeneous renin gene in 293 cells.