The 230-kD bullous pemphigoid antigen is a hemidesmosomal protein of the cutaneous basement membrane zone. We have previously cloned overlapping cDNAs corresponding to the human 230-kD bullous pemphigoid antigen gene (BPAG1), located at the human chromosomal locus 6p11–12. Utilizing the cDNA clones, a genomic DNA λFIX II phage library was screened. Seven overlapping genomic clones, spanning ∼20 kb, were isolated. These clones were shown to contain the entire ∼ 9-kb coding sequence of BPAG1 and it consisted of 22 separate exons which varied from 78 to 2,810 bp in size. Elucidation of 2.6 kb of 5′-flanking DNA was found to contain several putative transcriptional response elements, and development of promoter chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene constructs allowed identification of putative cis-elements which confer keratinocyte-specific expression to the gene. In particular, a putative AP2-binding sequence (KRE2) in the position ––(1,786––1,778) was shown to be responsible for marked enhancement of the endogenous promoter, as well as of a heterologous thymidine kinase/CAT construct, activity in normal human keratinocytes. Normal human keratinocyte nuclear extracts contained a protein, designated as KTP1, which complexed with the KRE2 oligomer by gel mobility shift assays. UV cross-linking and Southwestern analysis suggested that KTP1 is a DNA-binding protein clearly distinct from AP2, and this protein may be responsible for the basal keratinocyte-specific expression o