Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P Matthias.
The complementary DNA coding for a lymphocyte-specific transcription factor binding to the DNA 'octamer' sequence TNATTTGCAT has been cloned. The nucleotide sequence shows homology to the homoeobox domain. Expression of this cDNA in HeLa cells is sufficient for a strong transcriptional activation of B-cell-specific promoters.
Homoeotic genes in Drosophila melanogaster are active in spatially restricted metameric domains and control the morphogenesis of segment-specific features such as legs or wings within these domains. They exert their function, according to the 'selector gene' hypothesis, by regulating the expression of subordinate genes. Homoeotic genes also control their own expression and the expression of each other. The proteins encoded by these genes contain a domain, called a homoeodomain, that is strongly conserved, and that shows homologies to proteins that bind DNA and regulate transcription. Homoeoproteins have been shown to bind specific DNA sequences. We show here that the Drosophila homoeotic genes Ultrabithorax (Ubx) and Abdominal-B (Abd-B) code for proteins that are capable of activating transcription of reporter genes linked to specific cis-regulatory target sequences in transfected mammalian cells. Their activity, as well as their target specificity, is similar to that of a mammalian lymphoid-specific octamer transcription factor, OTF-2, which was recently found to contain a homoeodomain.
When immunoglobulin (Ig)-producing B cells are fused with fibroblastic cells, expression of Igs is suppressed by a mechanism that selectively abolishes transcription of Ig genes. The suppression is also maintained in proliferating hybrids. We have used gene transfer followed by cell fusion to study this phenomenon further. Here we report that expression of a rearranged Ig heavy chain gene, stably integrated into a myeloma genome, is completely suppressed upon fusion with fibroblasts by a mechanism that is equally active on the endogenous myeloma lambda light chain gene. To define regulatory sequences within the Ig transcriptional unit that are involved in this down-regulation, we examined the transcriptional contributions of the IgH chain gene enhancer and the kappa light chain gene promoter individually by linking them to a heterologous reporter gene. Mouse myeloma cells were stably transformed with such test constructs and subsequently fused with mouse fibroblasts. To avoid any significant loss of chromosomes, hybrid cells were isolated shortly after fusion by fluorescence-activated cell sorting, and proliferating hybrids were harvested within 2-3 weeks. On the basis of RNase protection mapping of cytoplasmic RNA, and of nuclear run-on assays we showed that both the kappa light chain promoter and the IgH chain enhancer contain regulatory information that is made redundant or is suppressed in the hybrid environment.
A strong transcriptional enhancer was created by oligomerization of a short segment from the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) enhancer. This segment was analyzed in parallel for biological activity in vivo and factor binding in vitro. In transfection experiments the oligomerized segment stimulates transcription in a cell type-specific manner similar to the entire IgH enhancer. Transfections of mutants identified two sequence motifs whose integrity is required for efficient and cell type-specific activity of this enhancer. The first is a sequence suggested previously to be bound by a factor in vivo, and the second is a highly conserved decanucleotide which also occurs in Ig variable gene promoters. The ability of these two sequence motifs to bind proteins in vitro was tested by band shift assays. Under our in vitro conditions we could not detect proteins binding to the in vivo footprint region. However, we found protein factors binding to the decanucleotide. A ubiquitous form of this factor is present in every cell line analyzed. Additional variants are detected exclusively in cells where the IgH enhancer and the segment thereof are active. Elimination of the decanucleotide motif is not only a strong down mutation in vivo but also abolishes binding of all factor variants in vitro. Thus our data suggest that the two enhancer motifs analyzed are involved in positive rather than negative control of transcription.
We have studied the extrachromosomal maintenance and the transcription regulation of two glucocorticoid-inducible genes on bovine papilloma virus (BPV) vectors in c127 mouse fibroblasts. These genetic elements were the rat tryptophan oxygenase (TOase) gene promoter, which is active in vivo only in hepatocytes, and the long terminal repeat of the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV-LTR). From both genes, fusions of the 5'-flanking region of the transcription unit to the bacterial gene for chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CATase) were constructed. These fusion genes were inserted either into pCGBPV9, a BPV vector encoding G418 resistance, into pBPV-BV1, a vector containing "stabilizing" segments of the human beta-globin gene, or into a BPV construct, whose bacterial plasmid sequences could be removed before transfection. Five constructs of the two latter groups, selectable in c127 cells only as foci, were normally maintained in the extrachromosomal state. In contrast, three out of five constructs based on pCGBPV9 and selectable for resistance against G418 were maintained in a high molecular weight form, most probably of intrachromosomal concatemeric nature, while the remaining two G418-resistant constructs appeared alternatively in this or the extrachromosomal monomeric form. In contrast to its absence of expression in fibroblasts in vivo, the TOase gene element present on BPV vectors was found to be active in fibroblasts in these transfection experiments. As judged by CATase activities and for TOase also by mapping of the transcription start sites, transcription of both genes was under hormonal regulation. All BPV vectors proved to be useful tools in the study of these regulated genes, and in only one out of ten constructs was regulation atypical, possibly due to effects from flanking vector sequences.
To study the mechanism of steroid induced transcriptional control we have introduced recombinants of the chicken lysozyme gene and the rat tryptophan oxygenase (TO) gene into heterologous and homologous cells. To monitor the activity of the TO-promoter, 1.9 kb of the TO 5'-flanking sequences were fused with sequences coding for the bacterial enzyme chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT). Upon transfer into mouse L-cells the transient expression of the TO-CAT recombinant was found to be inducible by dexamethasone. Transient expression of chicken lysozyme gene recombinants after introduction into various cell types could only be detected in chicken oviduct cells, or in conjunction with SV-40 enhancer sequences in human cells. The recombinant gene used in oviduct cells was a fusion between the lysozyme promoter, including 1.4 kb of upstream sequences, and the coding region of the gene for SV 40 T-antigen (plys-T). The expression in oviduct cells was stimulated by dexamethasone or progesterone, whereas SV 40 enhanced expression of lysozyme sequences in human cells could not be regulated by steroids. Using several deletion mutants, a region between -220 bp and -140 bp upstream of the cap site was found to be essential for both regulation by glucocorticoids as well as by progesterone.
Tryptophan oxygenase (TO, EC 1.13.1.12) from rat liver is subject to glucocorticoid and developmental control. To study the mechanism of regulation, TO mRNA sequences and the chromosomal TO gene were cloned. From a cDNA library prepared from rat liver poly(A)+ RNA enriched for TO mRNA, a recombinant plasmid containing TO cDNA sequences was identified by translation of hybrid-selected RNA and immunoprecipitation with antibodies directed against TO. This cDNA clone hybridizes to a mRNA 2000 bases long that is inducible by dexamethasone. With this clone as probe we isolated from a bacteriophage lambda rat DNA library genomic clones which together span a region of 32 kilobase pairs (kb). Heteroduplex analysis revealed that the gene extends over 19 kb and is interrupted by at least 11 introns. To characterize the presumptive control region the DNA sequence around the 5' end of the TO gene was determined. S1 nuclease protection experiments revealed two separate start sites for TO mRNA transcription within this region.
We transferred a chicken lysozyme gene recombinant by microinjection into primary cultures of chicken oviduct cells. The recombinant gene is a fusion between the lysozyme promoter, including 1.4 kb of upstream sequences, and the coding region of the gene for SV40 T antigen (plys-T). The expression of plys-T is stimulated by the steroid hormones progesterone and dexamethasone, but not by estradiol. The number of oviduct cells expressing coinjected or separately injected control genes is not increased by steroids. A deletion mutant lacking the lysozyme sequences between -161 and +15 does not express T antigen, indicating that transcription of plys-T starts within the lysozyme promoter region. By screening different cell types we found that microinjected plys-T is expressed in chicken oviduct cells but not in chicken macrophages or fibroblasts or in rat II fibroblasts.
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