Keratinocyte transcriptional regulation of the human c-Myc promoter occurs via a novel Lef/Tcf binding element distinct from neoplastic cells.

The proto-oncogene c-Myc is involved in early neoplastic transformations. Two consensus Lef/Tcf binding elements (TBE) were found to be prerequisite for transcriptional transactivation by the armadillo proteins beta-catenin and plakoglobin (PG) together with Tcf4 in human neoplastic cells. In epidermal keratinocytes, c-Myc was reported to be repressed by Lef-1 and PG. Using reporter gene assays, here we demonstrate that deletion of the two consensus TBE fails to abrogate transcriptional regulation by Lef-1/PG in wildtype and beta-catenin-/- keratinocytes, while it reduces transcription in pre-neoplastic PG-/- keratinocytes. We identified a TBE sequence variant downstream of the major transcriptional initiation site that binds Lef-1 in vitro and in vivo, and its mutation compromised transcriptional regulation by Lef-1/PG. Collectively, this study demonstrates that the two consensus TBE's reported in neoplastic cells are dispensable for c-Myc regulation in normal keratinocytes, which instead use a novel TBE sequence variant. This unprecedented finding may have important implications for armadillo target genes involved in carcinogenesis.