Identification of a positive Cis-element upstream of human NKX3.1 gene

NKX3.1 is a prostate-specific homeobox gene related to prostate development and prostate cancer.In this work,we aimed to identify precisely the functional cis-element in the 197 bp region(from -1032 to -836 bp)of the NKX3.1 promoter(from -1032 to +8bp),which was previously identified to present positive regulatory activity on NKX3.1 expression,by deletion mutagenesis analysis and electro- phoretic mobility shift assay(EMSA).A 16 bp positive cis-element located between -920 and -905 bp upstream of the NKX3.1 gene was identified by deletion mutation analysis and proved to be a functional positive cis-element by EMSA.It will be important to further study the functions and regulatory mechanisms of this positive cis-element in NKX3.1 gene expression.