The mouse creatine kinase paired E-box element confers muscle-specific expression to a heterologous promoter

E-box elements, with the CANNTG sequence motif, occur in numerous promoters and enhancers. We evaluated the tissue-specific expression properties of the paired murine E-box element from the mouse muscle creatine kinase (MCK) enhancer in a minimal heterologous promoter construct. A 46-bp fragment containing the paired E-box element in its wild-type (wt) configuration conferred high levels of muscle-specific expression in transfected embryonic chicken cell cultures. The expression from this paired E-box element was similar to that of the simian virus 40 (SV40) promoter/enhancer, but a 21-bp fragment containing a single E-box was inactive. We conclude that the paired E-box element from the MCK enhancer is sufficient for high levels of muscle-specific expression when placed upstream from a non-muscle TATA element.