Transcriptional regulation of the bovine oxytocin receptor gene

Abstract

The oxytocin receptor (OTR) is expressed in the cow uterus at high levels at estrus and at term of pregnancy. This expression appears to be controlled mostly at the transcriptional level and correlates with increasing estrogen concentration and progesterone withdrawal. Approximately 3200 base pairs of the upstream region of the bovine OTR gene were cloned and analyzed using a combination of bioinformatic, electrophoretic mobility shift (EMSA), and transfection analyses. Using nuclear proteins from high- and low-expressing tissues, EMSA indicated no significant quantitative or qualitative changes in specific DNA-protein binding, suggesting that transcription is probably controlled by signalli..