Murine and Human T-Lymphocyte GATA-3 Factors Mediate Transcription through a cis-Regulatory Element within the Human T-Cell Receptor δ Gene Enhancer

• Published in: Molecular and cellular biology Vol. 11; no. 5; pp. 2778 - 2784
• Main Authors: Ko, Linda J., Yamamoto, Masayuki, Leonard, Mark W., George, Kathleen M., Ting, Paul, Engel, James Douglas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis 01-05-1991
• ISSN: 1098-5549; 1098-5549
• DOI: 10.1128/mcb.11.5.2778-2784.1991

A family of transcriptional activators has recently been identified in chickens; these transcriptional activators recognize a common consensus motif (WGATAR) through a conserved C
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zinc finger DNA-binding domain. One of the members of this multigene family, cGATA-3, is most abundantly expressed in the T-lymphocyte cell lineage. Analysis of human and murine GATA-3 factors shows a striking degree of amino acid sequence identity and similar patterns of tissue specificity of expression in these three organisms. The murine and human factors are abundantly expressed in a variety of human and murine T-cell lines and can activate transcription through a tissue-specific GATA-binding site identified within the human T-cell receptor δ gene enhancer. We infer that the murine and human GATA-3 proteins play a central and highly conserved role in vertebrate T-cell-specific transcriptional regulation.