A Simple Screen to Identify Promoters Conferring High Levels of Phenotypic Noise

Genetically identical populations of unicellular organisms often show marked variation in some phenotypic traits. To investigate the molecular causes and possible biological functions of this phenotypic noise, it would be useful to have a method to identify genes whose expression varies stochastically on a certain time scale. Here, we developed such a method and used it for identifying genes with high levels of phenotypic noise in Salmonella enterica ssp. I serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium). We created a genomic plasmid library fused to a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter and subjected replicate populations harboring this library to fluctuating selection for GFP expression using fluorescent-activated cell sorting (FACS). After seven rounds of fluctuating selection, the populations were strongly enriched for promoters that showed a high amount of noise in gene expression. Our results indicate that the activity of some promoters of S. Typhimurium varies on such a short time scale that these promoters can absorb rapid fluctuations in the direction of selection, as imposed during our experiment. The genomic fragments that conferred the highest levels of phenotypic variation were promoters controlling the synthesis of flagella, which are associated with virulence and host–pathogen interactions. This confirms earlier reports that phenotypic noise may play a role in pathogenesis and indicates that these promoters have among the highest levels of noise in the S. Typhimurium genome. This approach can be applied to many other bacterial and eukaryotic systems as a simple method for identifying genes with noisy expression.     

Role of the duplicated CCAAT box region in gamma-globin gene regulation and hereditary persistence of fetal haemoglobin.

Hereditary persistence of fetal haemoglobin (HPFH) is a clinically important condition in which a change in the developmental specificity of the gamma-globin genes results in varying levels of expression of fetal haemoglobin in the adult. The condition is benign and can significantly alleviate the symptoms of thalassaemia or sickle cell anaemia when co-inherited with these disorders. We have examined structure-function relationships in the -117 HPFH gamma promoter by analysing the effect of mutating specific promoter elements on the functioning of the wild-type and HPFH promoters. We find that CCAAT box mutants dramatically affect expression from the HPFH promoter in adult blood but have little effect on embryonic/fetal expression from the wild-type promoter. Our results suggest that there are substantial differences in the structure of the wild-type gamma promoter expressed early in development and the adult HPFH promoter. Together with previous results, this suggests that gamma silencing is a complex multifactorial phenomenon rather than being the result of a simple repressor binding to the promoter. We present a model for gamma-globin gene silencing that has significant implications for attempts to reactivate the gamma promoters in human adults by pharmacological means.     

Gene Expression in Bacteria Directed by Plant-specific Regulatory Sequences

The regulation of gene expression represents a specific process which has different structural and functional requirements in different groups of organisms. It is thus assumed that regulatory sequences of eucaryotes cannot be recognized in procaryotes. This assumption is of interest for risk assessments of the environmental impact of deliberate release experiments with genetically modified organisms. In order to analyse the extent of heterologous gene expression caused by the transfer of plant-specific regulatory sequences into bacteria, we constructed fusions between plant-specific regulatory sequences and the coding regions of the luxAB genes for the luciferase of the bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio harveyi, transferred the fusions into different bacterial species and measured the luminescence to quantify the expression of the luciferase genes. The regulatory sequences investigated included (a) the 35S promoter of the Cauliflower mosaic virus, (b) the B33 promoter of a class I patatin gene of potatoes, (c) the promoter of the ST-LS1 gene of potatoes and (d) the promoter of the rolC gene of Agrobacterium rhizogenes. We could show that in addition to the 35S promoter, which has already been described as being recognized in Escherichia coli, the sequences containing the B33 and the ST-LS1 promoters are recognized in bacteria. Luciferase gene expression promoted by the sequence with the ST-LS1 promoter could be observed in E. coli, Yersinia enterocolitica and Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Comparison of the luminescence caused by fusions between luxAB and different promoters on the chromosome and on an endogenous plasmid of Y. enterocolitica demonstrated that the level of the heterologous gene expression caused by the fragment with the ST-LS1 promoter was within the range of gene expression levels caused by endogenous promoters of Y. enterocolitica.     

Assessing the determinants of evolutionary rates in the presence of noise

Although protein sequences are known to evolve at vastly different rates, little is known about what determines their rate of evolution. However, a recent study using principal component regression (PCR) has concluded that evolutionary rates in yeast are primarily governed by a single determinant related to translation frequency. Here, we demonstrate that noise in biological data can confound PCRs, leading to spurious conclusions. When equalizing noise levels across 7 predictor variables used in previous studies, we find no evidence that protein evolution is dominated by a single determinant. Our results indicate that a variety of factors--including expression level, gene dispensability, and protein-protein interactions--may independently affect evolutionary rates in yeast. More accurate measurements or more sophisticated statistical techniques will be required to determine which one, if any, of these factors dominates protein evolution.     

DNA supercoiling is differentially regulated by environmental factors and FIS in Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica

Although Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica inhabit similar niches and employ similar genetic regulatory programmes, we find that they differ significantly in their DNA supercoiling responses to environmental and antibiotic challenges. Whereas E. coli demonstrates large dynamic transitions in supercoiling in response to growth phase, osmotic pressure and novobiocin treatment, supercoiling levels are much less variable in S. enterica. The FIS protein is a global regulator of supercoiling in E. coli, but it was found to have less influence over supercoiling control in S. enterica. These inter-species differences fine-tune gene promoters to endogenous supercoiling and FIS levels. Transferring a Salmonella virulence gene promoter (P(ssrA) ) into a new enteric host (E. coli) caused aberrant expression in response to stimulatory signals. Reciprocal horizontal transfer of topA promoters, which control expression of topoisomerase I, between E. coli and S. enterica revealed how these orthologous promoters have evolved to respond differentially to FIS and supercoiling levels in their cognate species. This also identified a previously unrecognized osmoregulation of topA expression that is independent of FIS and supercoiling in both E. coli and S. enterica. These findings suggest that E. coli and S. enterica may be unexpectedly divergent in their global regulation of cellular physiology.     

Characterization of promoter function and cell-type-specific expression from viral vectors in the nervous system

Viral vectors have become important tools to effectively transfer genes into terminally differentiated cells, including neurons. However, the rational for selection of the promoter for use in viral vectors remains poorly understood. Comparison of promoters has been complicated by the use of different viral backgrounds, transgenes, and target tissues. Adenoviral vectors were constructed in the same vector background to directly compare three viral promoters, the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) immediate-early promoter, the Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) long terminal repeat, and the adenoviral E1A promoter, driving expression of the Escherichia coli lacZ gene or the gene for the enhanced green fluorescent protein. The temporal patterns, levels of expression, and cytotoxicity from the vectors were analyzed. In sensory neuronal cultures, the CMV promoter produced the highest levels of expression, the RSV promoter produced lower levels, and the E1A promoter produced limited expression. There was no evidence of cytotoxicity produced by the viral vectors. In vivo analyses following stereotaxic injection of the vector into the rat hippocampus demonstrated differences in the cell-type-specific expression from the CMV promoter versus the RSV promoter. In acutely prepared hippocampal brain slices, marked differences in the cell type specificity of expression from the promoters were confirmed. The CMV promoter produced expression in hilar regions and pyramidal neurons, with minimal expression in the dentate gyrus. The RSV promoter produced expression in dentate gyrus neurons. These results demonstrate that the selection of the promoter is critical for the success of the viral vector to express a transgene in specific cell types.     

The role of the omega subunit of RNA polymerase in expression of the relA gene in Escherichia coli

The rpoZ gene for the omega subunit of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase constitutes single operon with the spoT gene, which is responsible for the maintenance of stringent response under nutrient starvation conditions. To identify the physiological role of the omega subunit, we compared the gene expression profile of wild-type Escherichia coli with that of an rpoZ deleted strain by microarray analysis using an E. coli DNA chip. Here we report on a set of genes which show changes in expression profile following the removal of rpoZ. We have seen that relA, which is responsible for the synthesis of the stringent factor ppGpp and many ribosomal proteins, exhibited noticeable changes in mRNA levels and were therefore further analyzed for their expression using a GFP/RFP two-fluorescent protein promoter assay vector. In the absence of rpoZ, the promoter for the relA gene was severely impaired, but the promoters from the ribosomal protein genes were not affected as much. Taking these results together we propose that the omega subunit is involved in regulation of the relA gene, but induction of the stringently controlled genes in the absence of rpoZ is, at least in part, attributable to a decrease in ppGpp level.     

Using reporter gene assays to identify cis regulatory differences between humans and chimpanzees

Most phenotypic differences between human and chimpanzee are likely to result from differences in gene regulation, rather than changes to protein-coding regions. To date, however, only a handful of human-chimpanzee nucleotide differences leading to changes in gene regulation have been identified. To hone in on differences in regulatory elements between human and chimpanzee, we focused on 10 genes that were previously found to be differentially expressed between the two species. We then designed reporter gene assays for the putative human and chimpanzee promoters of the 10 genes. Of seven promoters that we found to be active in human liver cell lines, human and chimpanzee promoters had significantly different activity in four cases, three of which recapitulated the gene expression difference seen in the microarray experiment. For these three genes, we were therefore able to demonstrate that a change in cis influences expression differences between humans and chimpanzees. Moreover, using site-directed mutagenesis on one construct, the promoter for the DDA3 gene, we were able to identify three nucleotides that together lead to a cis regulatory difference between the species. High-throughput application of this approach can provide a map of regulatory element differences between humans and our close evolutionary relatives.