Transcriptionally active nuclear extracts have been prepared from rat liver, brain, and spleen. The adenovirus-2 major late promoter directs efficient transcription by RNA polymerase II in all of these extracts, whereas the promoter of the mouse albumin gene is significantly used only in the liver extract. Albumin sequences located between -170 and -55 are required for this liver-specific in vitro transcription, since deletion of this region results in almost a 100-fold reduction in transcription. In addition, insertion of these sequences in either orientation upstream of the parotid-specific Amy-1 promoter, which is poorly transcribed in the liver extract, increases the activity of this promoter to a level comparable to that observed for the albumin promoter.

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Two genes, BE2S1 and BE2S2, coding for methionine-rich albumins of Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa H.B.K.) have been cloned and their sequence determined. The genes are members of a multigene family and one of them, i.e. BE2S1, codes for one of the dominant 2S isoforms. Its expression is highly regulated during seed development and with respect to tissue specificity. Sequence analysis has shown that the genes contain one intron and that the promoter of BE2S1 shows a canonical TATA motif. The transcription initiation site is located 26 nucleotides downstream from the TATA box. Sequence comparison of the promoter regions of 2S genes from Brassica napus, Arabidopsis thaliana and B. excelsa revealed the presence of TGCA palindromic sequence that appear to be arranged in a 2S-specific manner.

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