Structure, organization, and expression of the rat cardiac myosin light chain-2 gene. Identification of a 250-base pair fragment which confers cardiac-specific expression

The present study characterized the structure, organization, and expression of the rat cardiac myosin light chain (MLC) -2 gene. The rat cardiac MLC-2 gene has seven exons which display complete conservation with the exon structure of the rat fast twitch skeletal MLC-2 gene. A 250-base pair (bp) sequence of the 5'-flanking region contains CArG motifs and additional cis elements, each greater than 10 bp in length, which were conserved in sequence and relative position with the chick cardiac MLC-2 gene. A series of MLC-2/luciferase fusion genes consisting of nested 5' deletions of the MLC-2 5'-flanking region were constructed and transfected into primary neonatal rat myocardial cells and a non-myocardial cell line (CV-1), demonstrating that this 250 bp of the MLC-2 5'-flanking region was sufficient to confer cardiac specific expression on a luciferase reporter gene. This study suggests the presence of important proximal regulatory sequences in the MLC-2 5'-flanking region which are capable of directing the cardiac specific expression of the rat cardiac myosin light chain-2 gene.     

Positive and negative regulation of the human heme oxygenase-1 gene expression in cultured cells.

To elucidate the regulation of the human heme oxygenase-1 (hHO-1) gene expression, we assessed approximately 4 kb of the 5'-flanking region of the hHO-1 gene for basal promoter activity and sequenced approximately 2 kb of the 5'-flanking region. A series of deletion mutants of the 5'-flanking region linked to the luciferase gene was constructed. Basal level expression of these constructs was tested in HepG2 human hepatoma cells and HeLa cervical cancer cells. By measuring luciferase activity, which was transiently expressed in the transfected cells, we found a positive regulatory region at position -1976 to -1655 bp. This region functions in HepG2 cells but not in HeLa cells. A negative regulatory region was also found at position -981 to -412 bp that functions in both HepG2 cells and HeLa cells.     

Structural and functional characterization of the 5'-flanking region of the rat and human cytochrome P450 2E1 genes: identification of a polymorphic repeat in the human gene.

Cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) is a toxicologically very important enzyme with a high extent of interindividual variability in expression. We sequenced and characterized the 5'-flanking region of the human and rat CYP2E1 genes. The identity between the human and rat sequences (-3.8 kb to +1 kb) was generally between 35 and 60%, and the most similar regions were found in the proximal part of the sequence. Two more distant regions at -1.6 to -2.0 kb and -2.5 to -2. 8 kb in the human sequence were also found to have high identity to the rat sequence. A polymorphic repeat sequence in the human gene was found between -2178 to -1945 bp. The common allele (CYP2E1*1C) contained 6 repeats (each 42-60 bp long) and the rare allele (CYP2E1*1D) had 8 repeats with an allele frequency of 1% among Caucasians and 23% among Chinese. The CYP2E1 5'-flanking regions of the human (-3712 bp to +10 bp) and rat (-3685 bp to +28 bp) genes were ligated in front of a luciferase reporter gene and transfected into rat hepatoma Fao and human hepatoma B16A2 cells. Important species specificity was noted in the control of gene expression and regions of negative and positive cis-acting elements were localized. No difference was seen in the constitutive expression between the two polymorphic forms. The importance of this repeat polymorphism for high and low inducible CYP2E1 phenotypes is discussed.     

小鼠组蛋白H3K4甲基化酶Smyd3启动子荧光素酶报告载体的构建与活性分析

为研究小鼠(Mus musculus)组蛋白H3 K4甲基化酶基因Smyd3转录调控的分子机制,本研究首先通过PCR的方法克隆了5条不同长度的Smyd3启动子5’端缺失片段,与pMD19-T载体连接后,双酶切克隆入pGL3-Basic荧光素酶报告基因载体,构建Smyd3启动子-pGL3-Basic报告基因重组质粒,瞬时转染HEK293细胞48 h后采用双报告基因检测试剂盒检测Smyd3启动子各缺失片段的相对荧光活性.结果表明,本研究成功构建Smyd3启动子5’端缺失片段-pGL3-Basic荧光报告基因重组质粒,所构建的启动子重组子转染组与阳性对照组相比表现出荧光活性,并且pGL3-Smyd3-4的荧光活性最强,是其他的2至4倍左右,pGL3-Smyd3-5的荧光活性最弱.本研究初步确定Smyd3基因的启动子核心区域可能位于-533～-42bp之间,在-2026～-533 bp之间可能存在启动子负调控序列.     

呼吸道黏蛋白5AC基因转录表达的顺式调控元件分析

目的：探讨呼吸道黏蛋白（mucin,MUC）5AC基因5'上游序列顺式调控元件在中性粒细胞弹力酶(neutrophil elastase , NE)诱导MUC5AC基因转录表达的调控机制。方法：应用DNA重组技术,构建含萤光素酶报告基因和MUC5AC启动子不同长度片段的嵌合质粒。采用定点突变技术,在嵌合质粒的基础上构建MUC5AC启动子区特殊蛋白（specificity protein）-1和核因子(nuclear factor, NF)-κB结合位点单独突变体,并测定NE刺激的转染细胞荧光素酶相对活性。结果：成功构建了4种含有不同长度MUC5AC基因启动子序列的荧光索酶报告基因质粒。含有启动子序列-1330bp、-689bp、-324bp的嵌合质粒荧光素酶相对光强度较对照组均显著增加,而含有启动子序列-64bp的嵌合质粒荧光素酶相对光强度与对照组相比差异无统计学意义。NE可诱导含有MUC5AC启动子区NF-кB结合位点单独突变体（pGL3E-MUC5AC-NF-кB-MU）荧光素酶相对光强度增加,而NE不能诱导Sp-l结合位点单独突变体（pGL3E-MUC5AC-SP-1-MU）荧光素酶表达增加。结论：MUC5AC 5'上游序列中-324～-64位点存在参与NE诱导MUC5AC基因表达的重要调控元件,位于此区域的顺式作用元件Sp-1位点在NE诱导MUC5AC基因表达机制中起重要作用,该位点可能作为靶向性基因治疗的关键调控元件。