Abstract
Enhancers are DNA sequences that stimulate transcription from eukaryotic promoters1–3. This stimulatory effect can be exerted over large distances and from a position either 5′ or 3′ of a promoter. Enhancers have been found in the genomes of many viruses, and in some cellular genes such as those encoding immunoglobulin heavy chain4,5 and κ light chain6,8. An important feature of both viral and cellular enhancers is the ability of each enhancer to stimulate transcription from many promoters other than the one with which it is found associated1,2. However, the question of whether cellular enhancers stimulate their ‘own’ promoter more efficiently than other promoters has apparently not been investigated. We show here that the κ light-chain enhancer stimulates a κ promoter about 20-fold more than it stimulates either the simian virus 40 (SV40) early promoter or a metallo-thionein (MT) promoter, two promoters that are very sensitive to other enhancers. Similarly, the heavy-chain enhancer stimulates a heavy-chain promoter much more than it stimulates the SV40 and MT promoters. This synergism between immunoglobulin enhancers and promoters might be due to the action of a protein that binds specifically to each of the regulatory elements.
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Garcia, J., thi Bich-Thuy, L., Stafford, J. et al. Synergism between immunoglobulin enhancers and promoters. Nature 322, 383–385 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/322383a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/322383a0
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