The 280-kDa -isoform of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) is predominantly expressed in heart and skeletal muscle, whereas the 265-kDa ␣-isoform (ACC␣) is the major ACC in lipogenic tissues. The ACC promoter showed myoblast-specific promoter activity and was strongly induced by MyoD in NIH3T3 cells. Serial deletions of the promoter revealed that MyoD acts on the E-boxes located at positions ؊498 to ؊403 and on the proximal region including the 5-untranslated region. Destruction of the E-boxes at positions ؊498 to ؊403 by site-directed mutagenesis resulted in a significant decrease of MyoD responsiveness. The "TGAAA" at ؊32 to ؊28 and the region around the transcription start site play important roles in basal transcription, probably as a TATA box and an Inr element, respectively. Mutations of another E-box at ؊14 to ؊9 and a "GCCTGTCA" sequence at ؉17 to ؉24 drastically decreased the MyoD responsiveness. The novel cis-element GCCTGTCA was preferentially bound by MyoD homodimer in EMSA and conferred MyoD responsiveness to a luciferase reporter, which was repressed by the overexpression of E12. This finding is unique since activation via E-boxes is mediated by heterodimers of MyoD and E-proteins. We screened a human skeletal muscle cDNA library to isolate clones expressing proteins that bind to the region around the GCCTGTCA (؉8 to ؉27) sequence, and isolated Myf4 and Myf6 cDNAs. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay showed that recombinant Myf4 and Myf6 bind to this novel cis-element. Moreover, transient expression of Myf6 induced significant activation on the ACC promoter or an artificial promoter harboring this novel cis-element. These findings suggest that muscle regulatory factors, such as MyoD, Myf4, and Myf6, contribute to the muscle-specific expression of ACC via E-boxes and the novel cis-element GCCTGTCA.