1. A STRATEGY TO IDENTIFY THE CIS-ACTING UPSTREAM REGULATORY
ELEMENTS OF A GENE ENCODING AN mRNA BINDING PROTEIN
By
CHRISTOPHER F. JANOWAK
Under the supervision of Dr. Jeffrey Ross
A senior thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Bachelors of Science
Honors in Research
(Genetics)
at the
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
2006

2. 1
Abstract
The regulation of gene expression is an important factor in normal cellular
processes. The c-myc coding region instability determinant binding protein (CRD-
BP) is an mRNA-binding protein normally expressed in fetal tissue and silenced in
adult tissues, but is expressed de novo in many types of cancers. Knowing how
CRD-BP is regulated is crucial to understanding its larger biological purpose. The
sequences immediately upstream of the CRD-BP gene show remarkable homology
between human and mouse genomes indicating high evolutionary conservation. We
cloned different sized sequences of DNA upstream of mouse CRD-BP gene into a
modified luciferase mammalian expression vector to systematically analyze the
homologous areas for cis-acting regulatory elements. We will be able to assay for
regulatory element activity in the clones by measuring luciferase activity after
transfection of our clones into mammalian cells.