Functional characterization of the promoter of human kinetochore protein HEC1: Novel link between regulation of the cell cycle protein and CREB family transcription factors

HEC1 (highly expressed in cancer), which localizes to kinetochore in cell mitosis, plays an essential role in chromosome segregation for M phase progression. To clarify the mechanism of its transcriptional regulation, we searched out and isolated its 5′-flanking region. Mapping of this region identified that it is a TATA-less promoter and contains several putative binding sites for different transcription factors. The results from HeLa cells transfected with pGL3 luciferase reporter vectors containing progressive deletion of the HEC1 5′-flanking region demonstrated that two elements containing binding sites for cAMP responsive element binding (CREB) protein and activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4 or CREB2) are critical for transcriptional activity. Mutation of the two elements, not downstream E2F box, resulted in a significant reduction of the promoter activity. Gel shift and supershift assays also demonstrated specific binding of transcription factors to their putative binding sites. Furthermore, overexpression of either CREB or ATF4 enhanced the activation of the HEC1 promoter and overexpression of both of them had an additive effect on the activation of the HEC1 transcription. Conversely, overexpression of dominant negative mutants of either CREB or ATF4 resulted in downregulation of HEC1 mRNA significantly. Our study provided a new insight into a potential mechanism of how transcription factors of CREB family are involved in the regulation of kinetochore protein HEC1 in cancer-related cells.