Analysis of Human Interferon-α Gene Promoters by Multiple Sequence Alignment

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Abstract
A map of conserved motifs within 11 human interferon-α gene promoters was developed using multiple sequence alignment. Multiple sequence alignment revealed the highly conserved structure of the virus-response element and a second region immediately upstream of the tata box. Homolog analysis indicated six families of potential promoter elements: (1) tata boxes, (2) GTATGT motifs, (3) virus-response elements, (4) distal putative interferon regulatory factor binding sites, (5) proximal putative interferon regulatory factor binding sites, and (6) TG sequences. On the basis of conserved promoter elements, a theoretical model of human interferon-α gene promoter organization was advanced. Transcriptional regulation of human interferon-α gene expression is controlled by a tata box and four regulatory domains. Experimental verification is necessary to confirm the predicted transcriptional control sequences. Proposed experimentation will generate insight into the differential transcriptional regulation of human interferon-α gene expression.