HUMAN INTERLEUKIN-2 RECEPTOR BETA-CHAIN GENE - CHROMOSOMAL LOCALIZATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF 5' REGULATORY SEQUENCES

Interleukin 2 (IL-2) binds to and stimulates activated T cells through high-affinity IL-2 receptors (IL-2Rs). Such receptors represent a complex consisting of at least two proteins, the 55-kDa IL-2Rα chain and the 70-kDa IL-2Rβ chain. The low-affinity, IL-2Rα chain cannot by itself transduce a mitogenic signal, whereas IL-2 stimulates resting lymphocytes through the intermediate-affinity, IL-2Rβ receptor. We report here identification of the genomic locus for IL-2Rβ. The exons are contained on four EcoRI fragments of 1.1, 9.2, 7.2, and 13.7 kilobases. The 1.1-kilobase EcoRI fragment lies at the 5'-most end of the genomic locus and contains promoter sequences. The promoter contains no TATA box-like elements but does contain the d(GT)(n) class of middle repetitive elements, which may play an interesting regulatory role. The IL-2Rβ gene is localized to chromosome 22q11.2-q12, a region that is the locus for several lymphoid neoplasias.