REGULATION OF EXPRESSION OF MILK PROTEIN GENES - A REVIEW

The regulation of expression of milk Protein genes is increasingly being studied impact on animal breeding and dairy production, (2) for the expression of pharmaceutical proteins in milk and (3) as a model system for developmentally and multi-hormonally controlled tissue-specific gene expression. Therefore a large amount of new data has accumulated since previous reviews on this subject and the present review focuses mainly on these new data. Tissue specific (MPBF, MGF) and ubiquitous (Oct- 1, NF1) nuclear factors have been identified that probably are involved in the expression of these genes. Furthermore, negatively acting factors also seem to be involved in the regulation of expression of these genes. Other elements that have been shown to influence the expression of these genes have been identified up to several kb upstream from the transcription initiation start site. Using the regulatory sequences of milk protein genes, many different pharmaceutically interesting proteins have been produced in the mammary gland of transgenic animals.