pDRIVE-FerL

FerL promoter (Ubiquitous) in pDRIVE expression plasmid

Ferritin is a ubiquitous iron storage protein, whose major role is to sequester and detoxify intracellular iron that has not been utilized in cellular metabolism.

Ferritin is a 24 subunit protein composed of two subunit types, termed H (heavy) and L (light), which perform complementary functions in the protein.

The H subunit plays a role in the rapid detoxification of iron whereas the L subunit facilitates long-term iron storage. The synthesis of ferritin is highly regulated by the iron status of the cell.

The iron regulation is achieved at the translational level through interaction between a 28-nucleotide iron-responsive element (IRE), located in the 5’ untranslated region (5’UTR) of ferritin mRNAs, and a cytosolic protein, the iron regulatory protein [1, 2].

References:

1. Eisenstein RS & Munro HN. 1990. Translational regulation of ferritin synthesis by iron. Enzyme 44(1-4):42-58.
2. Bevilacqua MA et al. 1992. Promoter for the human ferritin heavy chain-encoding gene (FERH): structural and functional characterization. Gene 15;111(2):255-60.