第14巻 2018年10月　第4号

■綜説

エストロゲン受容体α遺伝子の5′-非翻訳領域の構造と発現制御
石井　寛高, 服部　裕次郎, 小澤　一史
日本医科大学大学院医学研究科解剖学・神経生物学分野

Genomic Organization of the 5′-untranslated Regions of Estrogen Receptor α Genes
Hirotaka Ishii, Yujiro Hattori and Hitoshi Ozawa
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Nippon Medical School

The estrogen receptor α (ERα) functions as a ligand-inducible transcription factor and plays pivotal roles in various biological processes in reproductive and non-reproductive organs. Expression of the ERα gene is subject to complicated regulation. The gene has a multiple promoter system which regulates spatial and temporal expression of ERα transcripts. Furthermore, the 5′-untranslated regions (5′-UTRs) of ERα mRNAs have shown potency for post-transcriptional modulation. To elucidate the regulatory mechanisms of ERα expression, we comparatively examined the genomic organization of the 5′-regions of the ERα genes and the splicing profiles of their transcripts with distinct 5′-ends. Our analyses revealed the presence of multiple novel promoters and untranslated exons in the 5′-regions of the genes and showed that alternative promoter usage and alternative splicing generate numerous ERα transcripts with unique 5′-UTRs in species-specific manners. In this manuscript, we review recent images of human, mouse, and rat ERα gene structures and describe alternative splicing and expression patterns of their 5′-UTR isoforms.

日医大医会誌 2018; 14(4), 157-164

Key words
5′-UTR, alternative promoter usage, alternative splicing, ERα, gene expression

Correspondence to
Hirotaka Ishii, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyou-ku, Tokyo 113-8602, Japan
E-mail：hirotaka@nms.ac.jp

受付：2018年8月21日　受理：2018年9月27日