Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J B Shaffer.
We describe an improved method for identifying plasmids that contain recombinant DNA inserts. The protocol is inexpensive and easy to perform and allows for the examination of small colonies that might normally be excluded from this type of analysis.
Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH, Ec 1.1.1.8) in Drosophila melanogaster consists of a family of three isozymes designated as GPDH-1, 2, and 3 which exhibit a unique temporal and tissue-specific pattern of expression. While each isozyme is encoded by the same structural gene, they differ by the amino acid sequence at the COOH-terminal end, with GPDH-3 having the sequence Asn-His-Pro-Glu-His-Met-COOH and with GPDH-1 extended by the three amino acid sequence Glu-Asn-Leu-COOH. We have isolated both genomic and cDNA clones in order to examine the structure of the 3'-end of this gene and its transcriptional products. This analysis has demonstrated three classes of transcripts, each differing in the 3'-untranslated region and coding for an enzyme with a different COOH-terminal amino acid sequence. Each transcript is shown to arise through the differential expression of three isotype-specific exons at the 3'-end of the gene. We propose a model where the expression of each isotype-specific transcript is controlled through a developmentally regulated process of 3'-end formation and alternate splicing pathways of the pre-mRNA. Furthermore, since each transcript and its cognant isozyme is tissue-specific in expression, this model suggests a role for tissue-specific trans-acting factors in these processing events.
We have investigated the genetic control of murine catalase expression by analyzing catalase transcription and translation products from the tissues of control (Csa) and acatalasemic (Csb) mouse strains. Csb animals possess nearly normal catalase enzyme activity levels in liver, while displaying approximately 20 and 1% of normal activity levels in kidney and red blood cells, respectively. Immunoblot analyses of catalase in these tissues have revealed reduced levels of immunologically reactive catalase protein in Csb kidney and red blood cells, paralleling the reduction of catalase enzyme activity in these tissues. In order to determine the molecular basis for Csb acatalasemia, we have isolated a cDNA clone for murine catalase and have used this probe to analyze Csa and Csb genomic DNA and catalase mRNA. These studies have revealed: 1) no restriction fragment length polymorphisms between Csa and Csb genomic DNAs; 2) no differences in the levels of Csa and Csb catalase mRNA within a single tissue; and 3) no differences in the sizes of Csa and Csb catalase mRNAs. These observations suggest that the genetic defect that produces the tissue-specific reduction of catalase expression in Csb mice is not due to a marked rearrangement of DNA within the Csb catalase structural gene. Furthermore, the Csb mutation does not act at the level of gene transcription or mRNA stability, but rather at the level of mRNA translation and/or catalase protein turnover.
A genomic clone containing Drosophila sn-glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase sequences has been isolated using a mixture of synthetic tridecanucleotides as a hybridization probe. The clone as well as the synthetic probe mixture was found to hybridize to an abundant poly(A)+ RNA of 1700 bases. A partial DNA sequence obtained for a 40-amino acid region containing the oligonucleotide hybridization site was found to agree with the known Drosophila protein sequence data for this region of the protein. In situ hybridization of this clone to the polytene chromosomes of wild type flies and flies bearing chromosomal aberrations that delimit the Gpdh+ locus have allowed us to decisively place the gene in the distal region of 26A on the left arm of the second chromosome.
Xenopus laevis oocytes injected with poly(A)+ RNA isolated from Drosophila melanogaster direct the synthesis of catalytically active glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (NAD+) (EC 1.1.1.8). The de novo synthesized enzyme reflects the electrophoretic properties appropriate to the stock of flies from which the injected RNA was isolated and is electrophoretically distinct from endogenous Xenopus activity. Immunoprecipitation of 35S-labeled translation products has demonstrated two immunologically related proteins with molecular masses of 32- and 34kDa which are encoded by two separate mRNA molecules. The 32-kDa protein is identical in size and charge properties to the protein purified from the fly and possesses the catalytic activity observed in the Xenopus translational assay. Poly(A)+ RNA isolated from a strain of flies bearing a CRM- null mutation at the GPDH locus does not contain translatable RNA for the 32-kDa protein. These results suggest that the two immunologically related proteins are the translational products of two separate transcripts derived from either two related loci or from differential transcription and/or processing of the same genetic locus.
A variant that uniformly reduces the activity of larval and adult isozymes of sn-glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.8) throughout development has been isolated and analyzed. This low activity line (BI 114), which bears the fast electrophoretic structural allele, has been analyzed in comparison with two high activity control lines, WGM 74 (fast electrophoretic variant) and RI09 (slow electrophoretic variant). The enzyme has been purified from each line and all three variants have similar kinetic, immunological, and physicochemical parameters, except for pI differences associated with the electrophoretic differences observed. Enzyme-specific cross-reacting material analysis corroborates the activity data indicating differential rates of enzyme accumulation between lines throughout development. Protein turnover studies indicate that the rate of intracellular degradation between lines is the same, and that the activity and enzyme-specific cross-reacting material differences observed are due to differential rates of synthesis of the enzyme. Genetic analysis indicates that the variation in the rate of glycerol phosphate dehydrogenase synthesis segregates as a single gene with additive inheritance and is closely linked to the structural gene. Zymogram analysis of F1 heterozygotes has indicated that the variant acts as a cis-regulator and affects both isozymes equally throughout development. We have therefore designated this variant as a systemic regulator controlling the rate of glycerol phosphate dehydrogenase synthesis.
Interspecific F1 hybrids of Peromyscus maniculatus (deermice) and P. polionotus (oldfield mice) were backcrossed to P. maniculatus. Backcross progeny were electrophoretically typed for 11 variant protein markers: albumin, transferrin, leucine aminopeptidase, amylase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, nucleoside phosphorylase, dipeptidase, tripeptidase, glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase, alcohol dehydrogenase, and sorbitol dehydrogenase. Genetic variation for each protein was attributed to a single autosomal locus. The alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh), salivary amylase (Amy), and albumin (Alb) loci appeared to be linked in the sequence of Adh-11.5 cM-Amy-33.3 cM-Alb. The tripeptidase locus, Pep-2, also may be loosely linked to Alb in this group. Variants at all other loci assorted independently. These and other known linkage relationships in Peromyscus correspond closely to those of the house mouse, Mus musculus. The available evidence in Peromyscus further supports the concept of linkage conservation by natural selection.
Activities of the cytoplasmic and mitochondrial isozymes of aspartate aminotransferase (aspartate:2-oxoglutarate aminotransferase, EC 2.6.1.1, AAT) in transplantable mouse hepatomas BW7756 and H-4 are reduced when compared to normal adult liver. Both proteins have been purified to homogeneity from a single preparation of mouse liver and monospecific antibodies raised to each isozyme. By quantitative immunotitration analysis, the activity of each isozyme in liver and hepatoma has been shown to correlate with levels of immunoprecipitable protein. Furthermore, for each isozyme, the liver versus hepatoma species is indistinguishable by heat inactivation kinetics, Km's for substrates, and molecular weights. Thus, the reduction of mitochondrial and cytoplasmic AAT activities in hepatoma tissue is due not to alterations in the catalytic activity of the enzyme molecules, but to a decrease in the number of enzyme molecules present. Turnover of the isozymes was studied in liver and hepatoma tissue using in vivo radiolabeling and specific immunoprecipitation techniques. The cytoplasmic isozyme has a similar rate of degradation in liver and hepatoma, while the rate of synthesis of this isozyme in hepatoma is approximately tenfold less than in liver. The mitochondrial isozyme is also degraded at a similar rate in both tissues, but the rate of synthesis is sixfold greater in normal liver tissue than in hepatoma. It is concluded that decreased amounts of both isozymes in hepatoma as compared to liver are the result of a reduction in the rate of synthesis of each isozyme without any change in the rate of degradation.
The activities and isozyme patterns of seven enzymes involved in glycolysis, the malate-aspartate shuttle and the pentose phosphate pathway have been examined in five transplantable murine hepatomas, adult liver and fetal liver. The liver marker enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, has also been studied. The developmental expression of the activity and isozyme pattern of these enzymes have been determined. Seven defined loci on six different chromosomes code for these enzymes and isozymes. The tumors express no unique gene product for any of the enzymes examined, but the activities of all the enzymes in the hepatomas are more like fetal liver than adult liver, regardless of whether activities are increased or decreased in hepatomas. The activity of one enzyme is unchanged in hepatomas, and this enzyme has the same activity in fetal and adult liver. The enzyme activities in the five hepatomas vary more than the enzyme activities in liver and fetal liver of the three inbred strains of mice examined.
Reports of lead exposure can generate considerable public concern, particularly when children are involved. In December, 1996, a public elementary school in rural Utah was found to have elevated concentrations of lead in its drinking water. The local public health department responded by instituting remediation of the water supply and by warning parents of the possible danger to their children. Subsequent blood lead testing in 116 of the approximately 300 children involved showed an average lead concentration in the range expected for the U.S. population at large. One of the 116 specimens was marginally elevated and was probably unrelated to the school drinking water. Reducing lead exposure is an important public health concern which sometimes generates a response out of proportion to the danger involved.