ATG deserts define a novel core promoter subclass

The MHC class I gene, PD1, has neither functional TATAA nor Initiator (Inr) elements in its core promoter and initiates transcription at multiple, dispersed sites over an extended region in vitro. Here, we define a novel core promoter feature that supports regulated transcription through selective transcription start site (TSS) usage. We demonstrate that TSS selection is actively regulated and context dependent. Basal and activated transcriptions initiate from largely nonoverlapping TSS regions. Transcripts derived from multiple TSS encode a single protein, due to the absence of any ATG triplets within ∼430 bp upstream of the major transcription start site. Thus, the PD1 core promoter is embedded within an "ATG desert." Remarkably, extending this analysis genome-wide, we find that ATG deserts define a novel promoter subclass. They occur nonrandomly, are significantly associated with non-TATAA promoters that use multiple TSS, independent of the presence of CpG islands (CGI). We speculate that ATG deserts may provide a core promoter platform upon which complex upstream regulatory signals can be integrated, targeting multiple TSS whose products encode a single protein.