Modified structure of the human serotonin transporter promoter

Recently, several studies have reported an association between anxiety traits, affective disorders and autism and alleles of a functional promoter polymorphism (5HTT-LPR) in the human serotonin transporter (5HTT, SERT).(1-3) The mechanistic basis for allelic differences in transporter transcription are presently unknown. To explore this issue, we cloned the human 5HTT promoter region from a PAC genomic library(4) and now describe an unreported 381-bp insert between the polymorphic region and the transcription start site. We verified the presence of this novel sequence by Southern hybridization of genomic digests and PCR amplifications from multiple unrelated individuals. Sequence analysis of the novel region reveals a number of canonical transcription factor binding sites (eg AP1, Elk1, NF kappa B) that may be important in controlling the response of the 5HTT gene to regulatory factors. PCR studies of genomic templates reveal a low level of amplification of a deleted template matching the size of the originally reported 5HTT promoter. This deleted template is absent from PAC amplifications, suggesting that the human 5HTT promoter may exhibit in vivo instability.