Promoter regions of the human X-linked housekeeping genes PRPS1 and PRPS2 encoding phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase subunit I and II isoforms. 
The 5' regions of the human phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase subunit I and II genes (PRPS1 and PRPS2, respectively) were isolated and sequenced.  A comparison of the nucleotide sequences between human and rat PRPS1 genes revealed that the sequences around the transcription initiation sites were conserved over 56 nucleotides, and that a TATA-like sequence, a CCAAT box and three putative Sp1 binding sites were present at almost the same positions in the GC-rich sequences.  Two major transcription initiation sites were localized in the human PRPS1, one of the two was located 27 nucleotides downstream from the TATA-like sequence, while the upstream initiation site was in the TATA-like sequence.  The promoter region of the human PRPS2 gene was also GC-rich and contained a TATA-like sequence, four Sp1 binding sites and a homopyrimidine stretch.  The initiation sites were localized at 90 nucleotides upstream from the ATG initiation codon.  Chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT)/promoter fusion assays showed that a 2.0 kb region (human PRPS1) and a 1.1 kb region (human PRPS2) possessed the promoter activities in four cell lines.  The CAT activities in the three human cell lines tended to correlate with the steady-state mRNA levels of the PRPS1 and PRPS2 genes.  These results suggest that the 5' flanking regions cloned contribute to the cell-differential expression of these two genes.