p53 isoforms can regulate p53 transcriptional activity

The recently discovered p53-related genes, p73 and p63, express multiple splice variants and N-terminally truncated forms initiated from an alternative promoter in intron 3. To date, no alternative promoter and multiple splice variants have been described for the p53 gene. In this study, we show that p53 has a gene structure similar to the p73 and p63 genes. The human p53 gene contains an alternative promoter and transcribes multiple splice variants. We show that p53 variants are expressed in normal human tissue in a tissue-dependent manner. We determine that the alternative promoter is conserved through evolution from Drosophila to man, suggesting that the p53 family gene structure plays an essential role in…

• MR
  Medical Research Council