Metal regulatory elements

Labbe S, Prevost J, Remondelli P, Leone A, Seguin C (1991) A nuclear factor binds to the metal regulatory elements of the mouse gene encoding metallothionein-1. Nucleic Acids Res 19 4225-4231... 

Searle PF, Stuart GW, Palmiter RD (1987) Metal regulatory elements of the mouse metallothionein-1 gene. In Metallothionein II. Birkhauser, Basel, pp 407-414 (Experientia supplementum 52)... 

Hormone response elements (for steroids, T3, retinoic acid, peptides, etc) act as—or in conjunction with— enhancers or silencers (Chapter 43). Other processes that enhance or silence gene expression—such as the response to heat shock, heavy metals (Cd and Zn +), and some toxic chemicals (eg, dioxin)—are mediated through specific regulatory elements. Tissue-specific expression of genes (eg, the albumin gene in liver, the hemoglobin gene in reticulocytes) is also mediated by specific DNA sequences. 

Searle, P.F., Stuart, G.W. Palmiter, R.D. (1985). Building a metal-responsive promoter with synthetic regulatory elements. Molecular and Cellular Biology 5, 1480-9. 

Metallothionein expression is mainly regulated at the transcriptional level and is induced by various heavy metals, such as zinc. There are seven short sequence motifs located in a region within 200 base pairs upstream of the transcription start site. These cis-acting DNA elements are responsible for heavy metal induction and are thus termed metal responsive elements (MREs) (Stuart et al., 1984). Several regulatory proteins have been cloned which interact with these MREs. One of these, MRE-binding transcription factor-1 (MTF-1), is essential for the transcriptional activation of metallothionein genes by heavy metals like zinc and cadmium (Radtke et al., 1993 Palmiter, 1994 Heuchel et al., 1994 Koiszumi et al., 1999). 

Koizumi, S., Suzuki, K., Ogra, Y., Yamada, H. and Otsuka, F. (1999) Transcriptional activity and regulatory protein binding of metal-responsive elements of the human metallothionein-IIA gene. EurJ. Biochem., 259, 635-642. 

The expression of HMPAs is commonly controlled by their ligands, heavy metals, which may interact with a regulatory element(s) up- or down-regulating their gene expression (Rensing et al., 2000). Also, in... 

The regulatory regions of mammalian and yeast MTs have been studied in detail, but less is known about fish MT promoter regions. A hallmark of MTs is the rapid transactivation through multiple copies of metal responsive elements (MREs) within... 

Yan, B., Methe, B. A., Lovley, D. R., and Krushkal, J. (2004) Computational prediction of conserved operons and phylogenetic footprinting of transcription regulatory elements in the metal-reducing bacterial family Geobacteraceae.. /. Theor. Biol. 230, 133-144. 

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