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Biomedical subjects

A Duilio

Publications and source records attributed to A Duilio.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

The regions of the Fe65 protein homologous to the phosphotyrosine interaction/phosphotyrosine binding domain of Shc bind the intracellular domain of the Alzheimer's amyloid precursor protein.

Fe65 is a protein mainly expressed in several districts of the mammalian nervous system. The search of protein sequence data banks revealed that Fe65 contains two phosphotyrosine interaction (PID) or phosphotyrosine binding (PTB) domains, previously identified in the Shc adaptor molecule. The two putative PID/PTB domains of Fe65 were used to construct glutathione S-transferase-Fe65 fusion proteins. Co-precipitation experiments demonstrated that the Fe65 PID/PTB domains interacted with several proteins of apparent molecular mass 135, 115, 105, and 51 kDa. The region of Fe65 containing the PID/PTB domains was used as a bait to screen a human brain cDNA library in yeast by the two-hybrid system. Three different cDNA clones were isolated, two of which contain overlapping segments of the cDNA encoding the COOH terminus of the Alzheimer's beta-amyloid-precursor protein (APP), that represents the short intracellular domain of this membrane protein. The third clone contains a cDNA fragment coding for the COOH terminus of the human counterpart of a mouse beta-amyloid-like precursor protein. The alignment of the three APP encoding cDNA fragments found in the screening suggests that the region of APP involved in the binding is centered on the NPTY sequence, which is analogous to that present in the intracellular domains of the growth factor receptors interacting with the PID/PTB domain of Shc.

Alzheimer Disease

Expression of the neuron-specific FE65 gene marks the development of embryo ganglionic derivatives.

The major transcript of the FE65 gene is a neuron-specific mRNA that encodes a nuclear protein whose aminoterminal domain strongly activates the transcription of a reporter gene when fused to a heterologous DNA-binding domain. FE65 gene expression is regulated during neuronal differentiation of the NTERA-2 cell line, and it is temporally and spatially restricted during mouse embryo development. It is first detected around day 10 of gestation in the basal plate of the neural tube, and then, at the subsequent stages of development and in the newborn animals, it is found solely in neural structures. Its expression is most abundant in the neural crest derivatives (e.g. spinal and encephalic ganglia), ganglionic structures of sense organs (ganglionic layer of the retina and olfactory epithelium), as well as the ganglionic structures of the autonomic nervous system. Thus FE65 gene expression can be considered a marker of the development of embryo ganglionic derivatives.

Animals

A rat brain mRNA encoding a transcriptional activator homologous to the DNA binding domain of retroviral integrases.

We have isolated a rat cDNA, named FE65, hybridizing to an mRNA of about 2,300 nucleotides present in rat brain, undetectable in rat liver and very poorly represented in other tissues. An mRNA of the same size is present in human neuroblastoma cells and is absent from other human cell lines. The FE65 cDNA contains an open reading frame (ORF) coding for a polypeptide of 499 amino acids in which 143 residues can be aligned with the DNA binding domain of the integrases encoded by mammalian immunodeficiency viruses. The remaining part of the FE65 ORF is not homologous with the correspondent regions of the integrases; the first 206 residues of the FE65 ORF show numerous negative charges and a short sequence not dispensable for the function of the transactivating acidic domain of the jun family transcriptional factors. A plasmid which expresses FE65 amino acids 1-232 fused to the yeast GAL4 DNA binding domain was co-transfected with a plasmid containing five GAL4 binding sites upstream of a minimal Adenovirus promoter controlling the expression of the CAT gene. This experiment showed that the fused protein GAL4-FE65 is able to obtain a 30-40 fold increase of the CAT gene expression compared to the expression observed in the presence of the GAL4 DNA binding domain alone. Two types of FE65 mRNA are present in rat brain, differing only for six nucleotides. We demonstrate that this is the consequence of a neuron-specific alternative splicing of a six-nucleotide miniexon, which is also present in the human genome, in an intron/exon context very similar to that of the rat FE65 gene.

Amino Acid Sequence

Isolation of cDNA fragments hybridizing to rat brain-specific mRNAs.

A cDNA minilibrary in pUC18 has been generated from 3-month-old rat brains. Two hundred clones were randomly selected and sequenced. Comparison with a nucleic acid and protein data bank revealed a number of cDNA fragments not homologous to any published sequence. Northern blot analyses of some of these clones yielded 5 brain-specific cDNA fragments. The full-length cDNA for one of these clones has been isolated and completely sequenced. It corresponds to an mRNA of about 1,500 nucleotides, which is present in brain and, to a lesser extent, in heart and skeletal muscle. Its expression is developmentally regulated in the rat brain from 14-day embryos to 3-month-old adults. A very recent comparison with the EMBL nucleotide sequence data bank showed that this mRNA codes for a brain-specific snRNP-associated protein.

Aging

Oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis: a sequence-based screening.

A procedure to screen for mutant clones obtained by oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis has been developed. It is based on the preparation of phage containing supernatants from a number (100 or more) of randomly chosen mutagenized M13 plaques. Aliquots from these supernatants are mixed to obtain pools, each containing 10 phages. Heterogeneous single-stranded DNA is prepared from these pools and used as template in a "single letter" sequence according to the dideoxy chain terminator method. Thus, the pool(s) containing the mutated sequence and the mutated sequence itself is identified by sequencing the single-stranded DNAs of the 10 phages present in the selected pool.

Animals

The transcriptional efficiency of clustered tRNA genes is affected by their position within the cluster.

The transcription of a mouse genomic segment containing four tRNA genes, coding for a tRNA(Ala), a tRNA(Ile), a tRNA(Pro) and a tRNA(Lys), has been studied in a HeLa cell extract, demonstrating that differences among their transcriptional efficiencies are evident using as templates either the natural cluster or an equimolecular mixture of the four isolated genes. Nevertheless, the structure of the cluster influences the transcriptional efficiency of the clustered genes. In fact, a cis-acting inhibitory sequence has been located at about 400 bp downstream of the tRNA(Pro) coding sequence. Moreover rearrangements of the reciprocal position of the various tRNA genes within the cluster results in significant changes in the transcriptional rates of the individual transcriptional units.

Animals

Structure and in vitro transcription of tRNA gene clusters containing the primers of MuLV reverse transcriptase.

Three genes coding for mouse tRNAPro have been isolated from a genomic library and characterized both structurally and functionally. Two of these (tPro52 and tPro53) code for the tRNA primer of reverse transcriptase of MuLV. The third one (tPro51) shows several differences (mutations and deletions) that probably prevent the folding of the matured transcript into the cloverleaf structure, and is therefore a pseudogene. This pseudogene gives rise to a RNA transcription product in vitro. tPro52 is clustered with a tRNALys gene and with a tRNAAla gene, which is strongly homologous to the rat identifier repeated sequence. tPro53 is clustered with a tRNAAsp and a tRNAGly gene. Other tRNA-hybridizing sequences are present in the lambda clones that contain tPro51 and tPro53.

Anticodon

Pseudouridine excretion and transfer RNA primers for reverse transcriptase in tumors of retroviral origin.

To evaluate the relationship between pseudouridine increase in biological fluids and retroviral cell transformation, we have studied the effect of retrovirus infection and/or transformation on the rate of pseudouridine excretion by chick embryo fibroblasts. The results show that: pseudouridine excretion by chick embryo fibroblasts transformed by Rous sarcoma virus is several times higher than that of normal cells; this increased excretion precedes by many hours the appearance of the morphological signs of transformation and it is always present when neosynthesized infectious viral particles are released into the culture medium; and pseudouridine excretion was also increased in cells infected by a mutant of Rous sarcoma virus (RAV-1) which, lacking the src gene, does not transform the cells but replicates normally. To investigate if pseudouridine overproduction is related to an altered turnover rate of specific transfer RNA (tRNA) species which functions as primer of retrovirus reverse transcriptase, the concentration of non-acylated proline-accepting tRNA and non-acylated tryptophan-accepting tRNA, primers of reverse transcriptase of murine leukemia virus and of Rous sarcoma virus, respectively, has been measured, the former in normal and transformed AKR thymus and the latter in normal fibroblasts and in fibroblasts infected by Rous sarcoma virus or by its nontransforming mutant. The results show that in both systems a significant increase of the primer tRNA species occurs in the infected or transformed cells.

Animals