The use of promoters that strongly express target genes in the chicken oviduct is beneficial for the production of proteinaceous materials into egg white by transgenic chickens. To examine the regulatory mechanisms of chicken lysozyme gene expression in vivo, genetically manipulated chickens that express human erythropoietin under the control of a lysozyme promoter-enhancer were established. By using several deletion mutants of the promoter-flanking region, we found that a −1.9 kb DNase I hypersensitive site (DHS) was essential for oviduct-specific expression in genetically manipulated chickens. The concentration of human erythropoietin in egg white was 14–75 μg/ml, suggesting that the chicken lysozyme promoter containing −1.9 kb DHS is sufficient for the production of pharmaceuticals using transgenic chickens.

使用在鸡输卵管中强烈表达靶基因的启动子有利于通过转基因鸡将蛋白物质生产成蛋清。检查体内鸡溶菌酶基因表达的调控机制，建立了在溶菌酶启动子-增强子的控制下表达人类促红细胞生成素的转基因鸡。通过使用启动子侧翼区的几个缺失突变体，我们发现-1.9 kb DNase I超敏位点（DHS）对于基因改造鸡的输卵管特异性表达至关重要。蛋清中人类促红细胞生成素的浓度为14–75μg/ ml，这表明含有-1.9 kb DHS的鸡溶菌酶启动子足以用于使用转基因鸡生产药物。