Inverted repeats in the TATA-less promoter of the rat catalase gene

The rat catalase gene promoter lacks a TATA box, and has eight initiation sites of transcription as well as several GT and CCAAT boxes. To elucidate the mechanism of transcription in this TATA-less promoter, we analyzed nuclear factors binding to this regulatory region of the catalase gene. Functional analysis of the promoter region revealed that a pair of inverted repeat motifs located on both sides of the transcription initiation sites played an important role in the gene expression. The core sequence of this element is GYCMGGCCCKCTCYKG (M = A/C, K = G/T, Y = T/C), and four species of complex were observed to bind to this sequence. Furthermore, this element in the chimeric promoter negatively interacted with the initiator element of the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase gene. These results suggested that the rat catalase gene is regulated by a novel mechanism involving the inverted repeated structure of the promoter and characteristic binding factors.