Juvenile hormone binding protein core promoter is TATA-driven with a suppressory element

Abstract

The hemolymph juvenile hormone binding protein (JHBP) plays a key role in transporting juvenile hormone (JH) to target tissues and in protecting JH from the degradation by nonspecific esterases. Juvenile hormone esterase (JHE) removes JH signal at precisely defined insect developmental stages. The functional analysis of regulatory elements in the core promoter has been described only for the jhe gene. In this report we define the core promoter functional elements in the Galleria mellonella jhbp gene. It appears that jhbp core promoter is under strong control of TATA box and the transcription site (tss). In contrast to regulation of the jhe gene, the jhbp core promoter contains a sequence which directly suppresses jhbp expression. Evidences are provided for the contribution of the will die slowly (WDS) suppressory protein in jhbp basal transcription. We have also shown that the activity of the jhbp core promoter can be regulated by JHIII, and lesser so by 20E.