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Organization and promoter analysis of the mouse dishevelled-1 gene.

We have characterized the genomic organization of a mouse homolog (Dvl-1) of Drosophila dishevelled, a segment polarity gene required for wingless signal transduction. The Dvl-1 gene is organized into 15 exons ranging in size from 68 to 1315 bp spanning a region of 12,409 bp, with the largest and smallest intron being 5545 and 71 bp, respectively. Sequence analysis of the 5'-flanking region of the gene revealed a high GC content, six CCGCCC Sp-1-binding motifs, CREB, LBP-1 (leader-binding protein 1), and TGGCA-binding consensus sites. However, neither TATA or CAAT boxes are present, a characteristic shared by other GC-rich promoters. The 5'-flanking region has strong promoter activity when placed upstream of the luciferase gene. Promoter-luciferase constructs have demonstrated that the promoter is functional in transfection assays and that its activity is orientation dependent. Promoter deletions were used to define the 5' and 3' boundaries for promoter activity and revealed the presence of both positive and negative regulatory elements. Multiple transcription initiation sites were mapped by primer extension analysis and confirmed by reporter gene assay.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗

Arabidopsis sucrose transporter AtSUC9. High-affinity transport activity, intragenic control of expression, and early flowering mutant phenotype.

AtSUC9 (At5g06170), a sucrose (Suc) transporter from Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) L. Heynh., was expressed in Xenopus (Xenopus laevis) oocytes, and transport activity was analyzed. Compared to all other Suc transporters, AtSUC9 had an ultrahigh affinity for Suc (K(0.5) = 0.066 +/- 0.025 mm). AtSUC9 showed low substrate specificity, similar to AtSUC2 (At1g22710), and transported a wide range of glucosides, including helicin, salicin, arbutin, maltose, fraxin, esculin, turanose, and alpha-methyl-d-glucose. The ability of AtSUC9 to transport 10 glucosides was compared directly with that of AtSUC2, HvSUT1 (from barley [Hordeum vulgare]), and ShSUT1 (from sugarcane [Saccharum hybrid]), and results indicate that type I and type II Suc transporters have different substrate specificities. AtSUC9 protein was localized to the plasma membrane by transient expression in onion (Allium cepa) epidermis. Using a whole-gene translational fusion to beta-glucuronidase, AtSUC9 expression was found in sink tissues throughout the shoots and in flowers. AtSUC9 expression in Arabidopsis was dependent on intragenic sequence, and this was found to also be true for AtSUC1 (At1g71880) but not AtSUC2. Plants containing mutations in Suc transporter gene AtSUC9 were found to have an early flowering phenotype under short-day conditions. The transport properties of AtSUC9 indicate that it is uniquely suited to provide cellular uptake of Suc at very low extracellular Suc concentrations. The mutant phenotype of atsuc9 alleles indicates that AtSUC9 activity leads to a delay in floral transition.

Animals↗

The nuclear actin-related protein ARP6 is a pleiotropic developmental regulator required for the maintenance of FLOWERING LOCUS C expression and repression of flowering in Arabidopsis.

Actin-related proteins (ARPs) are found in the nuclei of all eukaryotic cells, but their functions are generally understood only in the context of their presence in various yeast and animal chromatin-modifying complexes. Arabidopsis thaliana ARP6 is a clear homolog of other eukaryotic ARP6s, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae ARP6, which was identified as a component of the SWR1 chromatin remodeling complex. We examined the subcellular localization, expression patterns, and loss-of-function phenotypes for this protein and found that Arabidopsis ARP6 is localized to the nucleus during interphase but dispersed away from the chromosomes during cell division. ARP6 expression was observed in all vegetative tissues as well as in a subset of reproductive tissues. Null mutations in ARP6 caused numerous defects, including altered development of the leaf, inflorescence, and flower as well as reduced female fertility and early flowering in both long- and short-day photoperiods. The early flowering of arp6 mutants was associated with reduced expression of the central floral repressor gene FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) as well as MADS AFFECTING FLOWERING 4 (MAF4) and MAF5. In addition, arp6 mutations suppress the FLC-mediated late flowering of a FRIGIDA-expressing line, indicating that ARP6 is required for the activation of FLC expression to levels that inhibit flowering. These results indicate that ARP6 acts in the nucleus to regulate plant development, and we propose that it does so through modulation of chromatin structure and the control of gene expression.

Actins↗

A uniform projection method for motif discovery in DNA sequences.

Buhler and Tompa introduced the random projection algorithm for the motif discovery problem and demonstrated that this algorithm performs well on both simulated and biological samples. We describe a modification of the random projection algorithm, called the uniform projection algorithm, which utilizes a different choice of projections. We replace the random selection of projections by a greedy heuristic that approximately equalizes the coverage of the projections. We show that this change in selection of projections leads to improved performance on motif discovery problems. Furthermore, the uniform projection algorithm is directly applicable to other problems where the random projection algorithm has been used, including comparison of protein sequence databases.

Algorithms↗

A new Minos vector for eye-specific expression of white+ marker in Ceratitis capitata and in distantly related dipteran species.

The genetic transformation of insects by transposable elements is based on the use of selectable genetic markers required to identify transgenic individuals. Conserved regulatory sequences can be used to develop single constructs capable of adequate expression of a marker, across a range of different species. We present evidence that the Drosophila GBS regulatory element (Glass-binding site), derived from the Rh1 rhodopsin gene, is able to drive in vivo eye-specific expression of a Ccwhite+ transgene in the Mediterranean fruitfly Ceratitis capitata. The Ceratitis lineage diverged from that of Drosophila approximately 120 Myr ago. As the GBS regulatory sequence seems to be partially conserved in the more distantly related dipteran species Anopheles gambiae (250 Myr), we propose that the GBS may be widely useful for driving eye-specific expression in a wide range of dipteran species.

Animals↗

The mouse S-antigen gene. Comparison with human and Drosophila.

We have characterized a gene for mouse S-antigen and compared its sequence with that of corresponding human and two recently published Drosophila S-antigen genes. The mouse S-antigen gene was approximately 50 kbp in length and consisted of 16 exons and 15 introns. The length of most exons was less than 100 bp and the smallest one was only 10 bp. In contrast, the length of most introns was larger than 2 kbp and the gene consisted of 97% intron and 3% exon. Both splice sites for donor and accepter were in good agreement with the GT/AG rule. S-antigen genes in human and mouse were highly conserved. In contrast, genes for the Drosophila 49-kDa arrestin homolog and arrestin consist of three introns and four exons and two introns and three exons, respectively. The 5'-flanking region of the mouse S-antigen gene, approximately 1.0 kbp long, had no regulatory elements for transcription such as the TATA, CAAT and GC boxes, while a Drosophila arrestin gene has TATA and CAAT boxes. Interestingly, the 5'-flanking region of the mouse gene had promoter activity in an in vitro transcription assay using a nuclear extract of rat brain. A major transcription start site was found at 387 bp upstream from the translation start codon ATG in mouse. From our results, and those of others, we suggest that the S-antigen gene has evolved from a common ancestor gene by either insertion or deletion of introns. Such an alteration of gene structure may have played a role in the evolution of the S-antigen.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Molecular evolution of fibrillar collagen in chordates, with implications for the evolution of vertebrate skeletons and chordate phylogeny.

Vertebrates have seven types of fibrillar collagens that are encoded by 11 genes. Types I, V, and XXIV collagens are components of mineralized bone, whereas types II, XI, and XXVII collagens are components of cartilage. In this study, we traced the molecular evolutionary history of chordate collagen genes and examined how gene duplications gave rise to the collagen genes used for skeletons. Our analyses of deuterostome collagen genes, including one amphioxus gene that we identified in this study, suggest that the common ancestors of deuterostomes possessed three fibrillar collagen genes. Expression analyses of chordate fibrillar collagen genes suggest that in the ancestors of chordates, fibrillar collagen was co-opted to the formation of the notochord sheath independently in three clades. Our results also imply that co-option of collagen genes to cartilage occurred in clade A (col2A1), clade B (col11A1, 11A2), and clade C (COL27A1). Similarly, some fibrillar collagen genes have been co-opted for mineralized bone independently from clade A genes (col1A1, 1A2, 5A2), clade B genes (col5A1), and clade C genes (COL24A1). These frequent co-options for notochord, cartilage, and mineralized bone must have been accompanied by the rapid evolution of cis-regulatory elements for transcription. In addition, we found that one of the ascidian fibrillar collagen genes possesses an amino acid insertion at the identical site of the C-terminal noncollagenous domain in vertebrate fibrillar collagen genes. This observation raises a suspicion about the relatively well-accepted phylogeny of the close relationship between amphioxus and vertebrates.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

A genetic and bioinformatic analysis of Streptomyces coelicolor genes containing TTA codons, possible targets for regulation by a developmentally significant tRNA.

The rarest codon in the high G+C genome of Streptomyces coelicolor is TTA, corresponding in mRNA to the UUA codon that is recognized by a developmentally important tRNA encoded by the bldA gene. There are 145 TTA-containing genes in the chromosome of S. coelicolor. Only 42 of these are represented in the genome of Streptomyces avermitilis, among which only 12 have a TTA codon in both species. The TTA codon is less represented in housekeeping genes and orthologous genes, and is more represented in functional-unknown, extrachromosomal or weakly expressed genes. Twenty one TTA-containing chromosomal genes in S. coelicolor were disrupted, including 12 of the 42 genes that are common to both S. avermitillis and S. coelicolor. None of the mutant strains showed any obvious phenotypic differences from the wild-type strain under tested conditions. Possible reasons for this, and the role and evolution of the observed distribution of TTA codons among Streptomyces genes were discussed.

Codon↗

Transient homologous chromosome pairing marks the onset of X inactivation.

Mammalian X inactivation turns off one female X chromosome to enact dosage compensation between XX and XY individuals. X inactivation is known to be regulated in cis by Xite, Tsix, and Xist, but in principle the two Xs must also be regulated in trans to ensure mutually exclusive silencing. Here, we demonstrate that interchromosomal pairing mediates this communication. Pairing occurs transiently at the onset of X inactivation and is specific to the X-inactivation center. Deleting Xite and Tsix perturbs pairing and counting/choice, whereas their autosomal insertion induces de novo X-autosome pairing. Ectopic X-autosome interactions inhibit endogenous X-X pairing and block the initiation of X-chromosome inactivation. Thus, Tsix and Xite function both in cis and in trans. We propose that Tsix and Xite regulate counting and mutually exclusive choice through X-X pairing.

Animals↗

SRF and TEF-1 control of chicken skeletal alpha-actin gene during slow-muscle hypertrophy.

The purpose of this study was to delineate the alpha-actin regulatory elements and transcription factors that are responsible for conferring stretch-overload responsiveness during hypertrophy of the anterior latissimus dorsi (ALD) muscle of young chickens by weighting one wing. Minimal promoter constructs were evaluated by direct injection into the ALD, which demonstrated that both serum response element 1 (SRE1) and the transcriptional enhancer factor 1 (TEF-1) elements were sufficient for increased expression during stretch overload. A mutated SRE1 prevented expression in both basal and stretched ALD muscles, whereas a mutated TEF-1 element reduced actin promoter function in both control and stretched muscles. The serum response factor (SRF)-SRE1 binding complex demonstrated faster migration in mobility shift assays from day 3-and day 6-stretched ALD nuclear extracts relative to their control. TEF-1 binding was qualitatively increased in stretched extracts at day 3 but not day 6 of stretch overload. Skeletal alpha-actin mRNA accumulated from day 3 to day 6 of stretch overload. These data demonstrate that SRE1 is necessary and sufficient for stretch-overload responsiveness from the skeletal alpha-actin promoter and that the SRF-SRE1 binding complex migrates faster in stretched nuclear extracts of hypertrophied relative to control extracts from intact ALD muscles of chickens.

Actins↗

XcisClique: analysis of regulatory bicliques.

BACKGROUND: Modeling of cis-elements or regulatory motifs in promoter (upstream) regions of genes is a challenging computational problem. In this work, set of regulatory motifs simultaneously present in the promoters of a set of genes is modeled as a biclique in a suitably defined bipartite graph. A biologically meaningful co-occurrence of multiple cis-elements in a gene promoter is assessed by the combined analysis of genomic and gene expression data. Greater statistical significance is associated with a set of genes that shares a common set of regulatory motifs, while simultaneously exhibiting highly correlated gene expression under given experimental conditions. METHODS: XcisClique, the system developed in this work, is a comprehensive infrastructure that associates annotated genome and gene expression data, models known cis-elements as regular expressions, identifies maximal bicliques in a bipartite gene-motif graph; and ranks bicliques based on their computed statistical significance. Significance is a function of the probability of occurrence of those motifs in a biclique (a hypergeometric distribution), and on the new sum of absolute values statistic (SAV) that uses Spearman correlations of gene expression vectors. SAV is a statistic well-suited for this purpose as described in the discussion. RESULTS: XcisClique identifies new motif and gene combinations that might indicate as yet unidentified involvement of sets of genes in biological functions and processes. It currently supports Arabidopsis thaliana and can be adapted to other organisms, assuming the existence of annotated genomic sequences, suitable gene expression data, and identified regulatory motifs. A subset of Xcis Clique functionalities, including the motif visualization component MotifSee, source code, and supplementary material are available at https://bioinformatics.cs.vt.edu/xcisclique/.

Algorithms↗

Genomic structure and expression of uncoupling protein 2 genes in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

BACKGROUND: Uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) belongs to the superfamily of mitochondrial anion carriers that dissociate the respiratory chain from ATP synthesis. It has been determined that UCP2 plays a role in several physiological processes such as energy expenditure, body weight control and fatty acid metabolism in several vertebrate species. We report the first characterization of UCP2s in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). RESULTS: Two UCP2 genes were identified in the rainbow trout genome, UCP2A and UCP2B. These genes are 93% similar in their predicted amino acid sequences and display the same genomic structure as other vertebrates (8 exons and 7 introns) spanning 4.2 kb and 3.2 kb, respectively. UCP2A and UCP2B were widely expressed in all tissues of the study with a predominant level in macrophage-rich tissues and reproductive organs. In fry muscle we observed an increase in UCP2B expression in response to fasting and a decrease after refeeding in agreement with previous studies in human, mouse, rat, and marsupials. The converse expression pattern was observed for UCP2A mRNA which decreased during fasting, suggesting different metabolic roles for UCP2A and UCP2B in rainbow trout muscle. Phylogenetic analysis including other genes from the UCP core family located rainbow trout UCP2A and UCP2B with their orthologs and suggested an early divergence of vertebrate UCPs from a common ancestor gene. CONCLUSION: We characterized two UCP2 genes in rainbow trout with similar genomic structures, amino acid sequences and distribution profiles. These genes appeared to be differentially regulated in response to fasting and refeeding in fry muscle. The genomic organization and phylogeny analysis support the hypothesis of a common ancestry between the vertebrate UCPs.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Conservation of noncoding microsatellites in plants: implication for gene regulation.

BACKGROUND: Microsatellites are extremely common in plant genomes, and in particular, they are significantly enriched in the 5' noncoding regions. Although some 5' noncoding microsatellites involved in gene regulation have been described, the general properties of microsatellites as regulatory elements are still unknown. To address the question of microsatellites associated with regulatory elements, we have analyzed the conserved noncoding microsatellite sequences (CNMSs) in the 5' noncoding regions by inter- and intragenomic phylogenetic footprinting in the Arabidopsis and Brassica genomes. RESULTS: We identified 247 Arabidopsis-Brassica orthologous and 122 Arabidopsis paralogous CNMSs, representing 491 CT/GA and CTT/GAA repeats, which accounted for 10.6% of these types located in the 500-bp regions upstream of coding sequences in the Arabidopsis genome. Among these identified CNMSs, 18 microsatellites show high conservation in the regulatory regions of both orthologous and paralogous genes, and some of them also appear in the corresponding positions of more distant homologs in Arabidopsis, as well as in other plants. A computational scan of CNMSs for known cis-regulatory elements showed that light responsive elements were clustered in the region of CT/GA repeats, as well as salicylic acid responsive elements in the (CTT)n/(GAA)n sequences. Patterns of gene expression revealed that 70-80% of CNMS (CTT)n/(GAA)n associated genes were regulated by salicylic acid, which was consistent with the prediction of regulatory elements in silico. CONCLUSION: Our analyses showed that some noncoding microsatellites were conserved in plants and appeared to be ancient. These CNMSs served as regulatory elements involved in light and salicylic acid responses. Our findings might have implications in the common features of the over-represented microsatellites for gene regulation in plant-specific pathways.

Arabidopsis↗

Identification of putative cis-regulatory elements in Cryptosporidium parvum by de novo pattern finding.

BACKGROUND: Cryptosporidium parvum is a unicellular eukaryote in the phylum Apicomplexa. It is an obligate intracellular parasite that causes diarrhea and is a significant AIDS-related pathogen. Cryptosporidium parvum is not amenable to long-term laboratory cultivation or classical molecular genetic analysis. The parasite exhibits a complex life cycle, a broad host range, and fundamental mechanisms of gene regulation remain unknown. We have used data from the recently sequenced genome of this organism to uncover clues about gene regulation in C. parvum. We have applied two pattern finding algorithms MEME and AlignACE to identify conserved, over-represented motifs in the 5' upstream regions of genes in C. parvum. To support our findings, we have established comparative real-time -PCR expression profiles for the groups of genes examined computationally. RESULTS: We find that groups of genes that share a function or belong to a common pathway share upstream motifs. Different motifs are conserved upstream of different groups of genes. Comparative real-time PCR studies show co-expression of genes within each group (in sub-sets) during the life cycle of the parasite, suggesting co-regulation of these genes may be driven by the use of conserved upstream motifs. CONCLUSION: This is one of the first attempts to characterize cis-regulatory elements in the absence of any previously characterized elements and with very limited expression data (seven genes only). Using de novo pattern finding algorithms, we have identified specific DNA motifs that are conserved upstream of genes belonging to the same metabolic pathway or gene family. We have demonstrated the co-expression of these genes (often in subsets) using comparative real-time-PCR experiments thus establishing evidence for these conserved motifs as putative cis-regulatory elements. Given the lack of prior information concerning expression patterns and organization of promoters in C. parvum we present one of the first investigations of gene regulation in this important human pathogen.

Algorithms↗

Fast and systematic genome-wide discovery of conserved regulatory elements using a non-alignment based approach.

We describe a powerful new approach for discovering globally conserved regulatory elements between two genomes. The method is fast, simple and comprehensive, without requiring alignments. Its application to pairs of yeasts, worms, flies and mammals yields a large number of known and novel putative regulatory elements. Many of these are validated by independent biological observations, have spatial and/or orientation biases, are co-conserved with other elements and show surprising conservation across large phylogenetic distances.

Animals↗