A positive regulatory sequence of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ENO1 gene

ENO1-'lacZ fusions with various lengths of the ENO1 5'-flanking region were constructed on various types of yeast plasmid vectors. The fully expressed level of beta Gal directed by ENO1-'lacZ fusions differed depending on the type of vector, but on any type of vector, beta Gal activity was not greatly influenced by the carbon source in the medium. The 86-bp DNA region of ENO1 at position -487 to -402 upstream of the initiation codon, in which we had previously delimited the positive regulatory region of ENO1 (Uemura, H., Shiba, T., Paterson, M., Jigami, Y., & Tanaka, H. (1986) Gene 45, 67-75), exerted its function without requiring precise location with respect to the TATA box. The action of the positive regulatory region was not affected by its orientation. In addition, the substitution of the UASs of PHO5, encoding repressible acid phosphatase, with the regulatory region of ENO1 changed the expression of PHO5-'lacZ gene to constitutive, irrespective of the concentration of inorganic phosphate in the medium. Furthermore, the GCR1 gene cloned in a multicopy plasmid increased the expression of the ENO1-'lacZ fused genes.     

Nucleotide sequence of the insecticidal protein gene of Bacillus thuringiensis strain aizawai IPL7 and its high-level expression in Escherichia coli

A DNA fragment carrying the insecticidal protein gene of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. aizawai IPL7 was cloned from a 78-kb plasmid. The nucleotide sequence revealed that the cloned DNA fragment contained a 3465-bp protein-coding region with 156-bp 5'-flanking, and 168-bp 3'-flanking regions. The open reading frame encoded a 130,690 Da protein consisting of 1155 amino acid residues. Nucleotide sequence comparison of the aizawai gene with the published berliner 1715 gene showed only 8 nt changes in the coding regions. It was found that 72 bp of the 5'-flanking sequence of the cloned aizawai gene was responsible for constitutive expression of the 130-kDa protein gene in Escherichia coli. The expression was greatly enhanced by introducing the tac promoter upstream from the 72-bp 5'-flanking region of the aizawai gene. Under optimal conditions, the 130-kDa insecticidal protein amounted to 38% of the total cellular protein.     

香蕉果实特异性ACC合酶基因启动子区的克隆及其功能初探

根据本实验室所获得的香蕉果实特异性ACC合酶cDNA序列,以改进的接头连接PCR方法通过两次步行从香蕉基因组中分别扩增并克隆了其基因5′旁侧区近端1.2kb和远端1.6kb的片段。通过拼接,构建出含有2505bp启动子区和转录起始位点下游86bp的共2591bp的基因5′旁侧区片段;其启发性动子区中34至28为推测的TATA盒序列,158至146为推测的CCAAT盒,与其它植物基因启动子结构相类似。将2.5kb启动子片段与β-葡糖苷酸酶(GUS)基因编码序列融合,用基因枪法将构建的嵌合基因转入香蕉叶、根和果实的细胞后,只在果实细胞中观察到报告基因的瞬时表达,从功能上证明了此25kb的启动子片段具有指导报告基因在香蕉果实中特异性表达的作用。同时构建5个含不同5′端缺失启动子与GUS融合基因的表达载体。瞬时表达结果表明可能负责果实特异性表达的调控区存在于转录起始位点至-1111的启动子区中,而在-1111至-608区间可能存在一个正控制区。     

Structure of the murine mb-1 gene encoding a putative sIgM-associated molecule

Genomic DNA clones containing the B cell-specific murine mb-1 gene were isolated and a 5.6-kb BamH I fragment was characterized. It is 5629 bp long and contains five exons: an exon containing the 5' untranslated and the coding sequence of the signal peptide, an exon of 294 bp, which contains most of the extracellular sequence of the MB-1 protein, a 119-bp long exon coding mainly for the transmembrane portion, and two exons of 69 bp and 427 bp encoding the cytoplasmic domain and the 3'-untranslated region, respectively. The mb-1 gene does not contain a "TATA box" found in many eukaryotic promoters. The 5'-flanking region has sequence stretches homologous to IgVH 5'-promoter regions and a bcl 2 intron sequence. It contains the decanucleotide sequence (ATGGCAAATA) almost identical to the octamer motif of IgVH promoters. A B cell-specific DNase I-hypersensitive site was found in the 3'-flanking region indicating that this region might be involved in B cell-specific expression of mb-1. Southern blot analysis of genomic liver DNA with the cloned mb-1 cDNA suggests the existence of another mb-1-related gene segment.     

A 27 bp cis-acting sequence is essential for L-type calcium channel alpha(1C) subunit expression in vascular smooth muscle cells

Expression of L-type calcium channels in cardiac myocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) critically regulates the contractile state of these cells. In order to discover the elements in the promoter region of the Ca(v)1.2 gene encoding the vascular/cardiac calcium channel alpha(1C) subunit that are important for the basal gene expression, approximately 2 kb of the 5'-flanking sequence of the Ca(v)1.2 gene has been cloned in our lab. In this study, using various lengths of the 5'-flanking DNA fused with a luciferase gene as a reporter, we have defined a 493-bp fragment of the cis-regulatory DNA which carries the majority of promoter activity in pulmonary artery smooth muscle (PAC1) cells. DNase I footprinting analysis of this 493-bp DNA using nuclear extracts from PAC1 cells revealed a 27-bp DNA sequence that contains a c-Ets like motif (CAGGATGC). Mutation of the Ets-like site and the respective flanking sequence within the DNase I footprinting protection region induced a marked change in the promoter activity in PAC1 cells. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) confirmed the presence of specific binding factor(s) in PAC1 cells' nuclear extracts for this 27-bp DNA. Competition studies with the wild-type and mutated DNA fragments established the importance of the 27 bp DNA sequence for high-affinity binding of the nuclear proteins to the promoter. We conclude that there is a 27 bp region in the promoter of the Ca(v)1.2 gene to which nuclear proteins from VSMC bind and strongly regulate the basal promoter activity.     

Nucleotide sequence of the 5' flanking region responsible for the enhancement of the expression of yeast enolase 1 gene

Several plasmids carrying different length of the 5' flanking region of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) enolase 1 gene (ENO1) which is fused in frame to the Escherichia coli lacZ gene were constructed by recombination in vitro. Promoter activity of ENO1 was assayed by measuring beta-galactosidase activity of the fused gene product. Comparison of the promoter activity of these plasmids suggests that the sequences required for a strong promoter activity lie within the DNA segment -724 to -353 base pairs (bp) upstream from the start of ENO1 coding sequence. The nucleotide sequence of this region was determined.     

香蕉果实成熟相关基因ACO1启动子区的克隆及其功能初探

根据已报道的香蕉课实表达ACC氧化酶基因（ACO1）的序列,用改进的接头连接PCR法从香蕉基因组中扩增并克隆了此基因5′旁侧区1526bp的片段,其中包含一个推测的TATA盒序列;与已公布的两个香蕉ACC氧化酶基因启动子序列（分别为934bp和1451bp）的相似性各为97．3％（Lopez-Gomez等）和88．8％（May和Kipp)。将4个含有不同大小启动子区的克隆片段与GUS基因编码区连接构建成嵌合成基因,通过基因枪轰击转入香蕉叶、根和果实的细胞后,瞬时表达结果表明不同大小的ACO1启动子区段都只在果实细胞中指导GUS基因表达,证明该启动子具有指导基因在果实中表达的功能,并推测负责果实特异性的顺式元件可能位于启动子近端0．7kb区段之内,在468至822的355bp区段内可能在与正控制有关的顺式元件。