Title : Identification of transcription factors and DNA-binding domains with conservation analysis of the 5'-upstream promoter sequence of Chitinase-3-like protein-1 (CHI3L1) gene encoding YKL-40 protein: A type-2-diabetes specific inflammatory glycoprotein marker
Abstract :YKL-40, encoded by Chitinase-3-like protein 1 (CHI3L1) gene, is predominantly an inflammation-based secretory glycoprotein in type-2-diabetes. The transcriptional mechanism, especially the upstream promoter region of the human CHI3L1 gene, remains unknown. The aim was to performin silico upstream promoter identification and analysis to determine types of transcription factors and their binding domains crucial in transcribing the human CHI3L1 gene along with multiple sequence alignments and detailed phylogenetic analysis of eight mammalian species of the CHI3L1 gene. The key finding revealed that YKL-40 is regulated by inflammation-based transcription factors, which are positive regulators mostly signal-dependent belonging to basic-, zinc-coordinating- and helix-turn-helix -DNA-binding domains. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that the promoter region of the primate species evolved together. The 5’-upstream promoter regions lying within the -3000 bp of the transcription start site are highly dynamic regions to bind transcription factors and consist of their respective transcription factor binding domains.