Downstream promoter element
![Overview of the four core promoter elements B recognition element (BRE), TATA box, initiator motif (Inr), and downstream promoter element (DPE), showing their respective consensus sequences and their distance from the transcription start site.[1]](/Images/godic/202501/09/Core_promoter_elements.svg5608.png")
In molecular biology, a downstream promoter element (DPE) is a core promoter element. Like all core promoters, the DPE plays an important role in the initiation of gene transcription by RNA polymerase II. The DPE was first described by T. W. Burke and James T. Kadonaga in Drosophila melanogaster at the University of California, San Diego in 1996. It is also present in other species including humans, except Saccharomyces cerevisiae.