Cloning the genomic sequence and identification of promoter regions of bovine pyruvate carboxylase

Pyruvate carboxylase (PC) catalyzes a pivotal reaction in gluconeogenesis and lipid metabolism in liver. In bovine the PC gene is expressed as six 5' untranslated region (UTR) mRNA variants. The objectives for this study were to clone and sequence the bovine PC gene, determine the intron and exon organization and identify PC promoter region(s). Oligonucleotide sequences that corresponded to the 5' UTR mRNA variants and coding sequence of bovine PC were used to isolate 2 clones from the RPCI-42 bovine bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library. Sequencing data confirmed the presence of regions for the 5' UTR for bovine PC mRNA. The exon arrangement from 5' to 3' is 48 (exon I), 41 (exon II), 178 (exon IIIA and IIIB), and 185 (exon IV) bp. Three promoter regions, P3, P2, and P1, adjacent to exon I, II, and IIIA, respectively, were identified based on computer analysis of sequence data. Putative promoters were cloned into a firefly luciferase vector and transiently transfected into H4IIE rat hepatoma cells. All PC promoters demonstrated luciferase activity comparable with the minimal promoter luciferase vector and higher than the promoterless luciferase vector. In addition, PC promoter 1 exhibited greater luciferase activity compared with PC promoter 2 or 3. These data provide information about the arrangement of the 4 bovine PC 5' UTR exons, the identity of the promoter regions for the bovine PC gene, and indicate differences in relative basal activity of the promoter regions.