Genetic analysis of the enhancer requirements for polyomavirus DNA replication in mice.

In this report, we describe the first systematic analysis of the genetic requirements for polyomavirus (Py) enhancer-activated viral DNA replication during the acute phase of infection in mice. Four mutants were made which substituted XhoI sites for conserved enhancer consensus sequences (adenovirus type 5 E1A, c-fos, simian virus 40, and a glucocorticoidlike consensus sequence). Viral DNA replication in infected mouse organs was measured by DNA blot analysis. Only the loss of the glucocorticoidlike consensus sequence element significantly reduced Py DNA replication in the kidneys, the primary target organ for viral replication. The loss of the c-fos, adenovirus type 5 E1A, or simian virus 40 consensus sequences, however, expanded organ-specific viral DNA replication, relative to wild-type Py, by allowing high-level replication in the pancreas or heart or both. Analysis of Py variants selected for replication in undifferentiated embryonal carcinoma cell lines (PyF441, PyF111) showed that there was little change in levels of viral DNA replication in kidneys and other organs as compared with those in the wild-type virus. If the entire B enhancer is deleted, only low overall levels of viral replication are observed. Wild-type levels of replication in the kidneys can be reconstituted by addition of a single domain from within the A enhancer (nucleotides 5094 to 5132) to the B enhancer deletion virus, suggesting that a single domain from the A enhancer can functionally substitute for the entire B enhancer. This also indicates that the determinants for kidney-specific replication are not found in the B enhancer.     

New class of polyomavirus mutant that can persist as free copies in F9 embryonal carcinoma cells.

A small circular DNA was found extrachromosomally in a clone of F9 embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells at high copy numbers per cell. The DNA was cloned in plasmid pUC19. Restriction endonuclease analyses of the DNA indicated that the DNA (fPyF9) was a mutant of polyomavirus (Py) DNA and had a mutation in a noncoding regulatory region. There have been many reports on the isolation of Py mutants capable of replication in undifferentiated cells. However, fPyF9 was different from other Py mutants in the following aspects: it was harbored stably as a free copy at 1 X 10(4) to 5 X 10(4) copies per cell in EC cells; it replicated in undifferentiated cells better than in differentiated cells; it was extremely rearranged in the sequences of the enhancer B domain; and it carried in the enhancer B domain three copies of an exogenous sequence which does not exist in Py strain A2. From these observations, we propose a new class of Py EC mutant which has an autonomous state similar to that of plasmid and small circular DNA in host cells.     

The c-Ha-ras oncogene and a tumor promoter activate the polyoma virus enhancer

A c-Ha-ras oncogene, to a lesser extent the c-Ha-ras proto-oncogene, and the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate activate the inactive polyoma virus (Py) enhancer in a myeloma cell line and the partially active Py enhancer in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, but have no effect on the active Py enhancer in LMTK- fibroblasts. In addition, c-Ha-ras can stimulate the inactive Py enhancer in embryonal carcinoma F9 cells. c-Ha-ras activation in embryonal carcinoma cells does not appear to involve reversal of "E1A-like" inhibition of the enhancer. We suggest that modulation of cellular enhancer activity could play a key role in tumorigenesis by oncogenes.     

Nuclear activity from F9 embryonal carcinoma cells binding specifically to the enhancers of wild-type polyoma virus and PyEC mutant DNAs.

Although wild-type polyoma virus does not productively infect murine embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells, a number of mutants (PyEC mutants) that do infect undifferentiated EC cells have been isolated. All PyEC mutants have DNA sequence alterations within the enhancer region of the viral genome. This report describes an activity present in nuclear extracts of F9 EC cells which, by "footprint" analyses, binds specifically to a small region of about 20 base pairs (nucleotides 5180-5200) within the subregion of the polyoma enhancer designated as the B or beta element. While no difference in binding of factor was detected between wild-type polyoma enhancer and the enhancers of the PyEC mutants, PyF111 and PyF441, which had been selected for productive infection of F9 cells, definite differences between wild-type and mutants were observed in the digestion patterns of their naked DNAs with either DNAase I or exonuclease III. This difference was restricted to the region around the point mutation (nucleotide 5258) common to these mutant DNAs.     

Expression of various viral and cellular enhancer-promoters during differentiation of human embryonal carcinoma cells

Alterations in the pattern of gene expression were studied during differentiation of the human embryonal carcinoma (EC) cell line NEC14. NEC14 cells can be induced to differentiate by the addition of 10(-2) M N,N'-hexamethylene-bis-acetamide (HMBA). The efficiency of DNA transfection of undifferentiated and differentiated NEC14 cells was compared by measuring the activities of endogenous and exogenously introduced promoters for the beta-actin gene and heat shock protein 70 gene. The results indicated that the efficiency was not significantly different in cells of these two states. Under the conditions used, all the viral enhancer-promoters tested showed very little or no activity in undifferentiated cells, but activities of SV40, BKV, adenovirus and RSV enhancers were greatly increased after differentiation. Activities of these viral enhancers in differentiated cells were completely repressed by cotransfection with the adenovirus E1A gene. An E1A-inducible promoter of the adenovirus E2 gene showed stronger activity in differentiated than in undifferentiated cells, and was not activated efficiently by cotransfection with the E1A gene in either undifferentiated or differentiated cells. These results indicate that factor(s) regulating activities of various enhancer-promoters in NEC14 cells is or are different from E1A-like factor(s) present in mouse EC F9 cells.     

Interaction of nuclear factor EF-1A with the polyomavirus enhancer region.

Enhancer factor 1A (EF-1A) is a mammalian nuclear protein that previously was shown to bind cooperatively to the repeated core enhancer element I sequence in the adenovirus E1A enhancer region. We now have characterized three binding sites for EF-1A in the polyomavirus A2 (Py) enhancer region. Site 1 resides in the Py A enhancer domain, and sites 2 and 3 reside in the Py B enhancer domain. EF-1A binding to Py site 1 is independent of cooperation with other EF-1A sites or the adjacent binding sites for PEA-1 and PEA-2, two murine nuclear factors that bind in the Py A enhancer domain. EF-1A binding to Py sites 2 and 3, in contrast, is cooperative, similar to the situation previously observed with binding sites in the adenovirus E1A enhancer region. In a transient replication assay, EF-1A site 1 functions synergistically with the PEA-1 and PEA-2 sites in the A enhancer domain to enhance Py replication. The functional cooperativity observed with the EF-1A, PEA-1, and PEA-2 sites in vivo does not reflect cooperative DNA binding interactions, as detected in vitro. Py EF-1A site 1 alone is capable of weakly stimulating Py replication. EF-1A site 1 overlaps with the binding sites for the murine nuclear protein PEA-3 and the ets family of oncoproteins.     

Amplification and excision of integrated polyoma DNA sequences require a functional origin of replication

Cells transformed by Polyoma virus (Py) can undergo a high rate of excision or amplification of integrated viral DNA sequences, and these phenomena require the presence of homology (i.e., repeats) within the viral insertion as well as a functional viral large T antigen (T-Ag). To determine whether the main role of large T-Ag in excision and amplification was replicative or recombination-promoting, we studied transformed rat cell lines containing tandem insertions of a ts-a Py molecule (encoding a thermolabile large T-Ag) with a deletion of the origin of viral DNA replication. Culturing of these cells at the temperature permissive for large T-Ag function did not result in any detectable excision or amplification of integrated Py sequences. We then introduced into origin-defective lines a recombinant plasmid containing the viral origin of replication and the gene coding for resistance to the antibiotic G418. All G418-resistant clones analyzed readily amplified the integrated plasmid molecules when grown under conditions permissive for large T-Ag function, showing that these cells produced viral large T-Ag capable of promoting amplification in trans of DNA sequences containing the Py origin. These observations strongly suggest that Polyoma large T antigen promotes excision or amplification of viral DNA by initiating replication at the integrated origin, providing a favorable substrate for subsequent recombination.     

Polyomavirus DNA replication in the pancreas and in a transformed pancreas cell line has distinct enhancer requirements.

The regulatory DNA (enhancer) of polyomavirus (Py) is a major determinant of tissue-specific DNA replication during acute infection of newborn mice. Previously, we reported that the combination of one of the two Py enhancers (A enhancer) and the repeated Moloney murine leukemia virus (Mo-MuLV) enhancer gave a chimeric Py genome (Py-MuLV) that replicates predominantly in the acinar cells of the pancreas, a tissue not permissive for wild-type PyA2 replication (R. Rochford, B. A. Campbell, and L. P. Villareal. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 84:449-453,1987). In this report, we further examine the combined enhancer requirements for acinar cell-specific Py replication. We also compare enhancer requirements for Py replication in the acinar cells of the pancreas with those of a transformed acinar cell line (266-6 cells). The deletion of sequences within the A enhancer of Py-MuLV (nucleotides 5098 to 5132) results in a virus with 10-fold-reduced levels of pancreas-specific replication. The deletion, however, of one of the 72-bp repeated Mo-MuLV enhancer sequences from Py-MuLV results in a complete loss of pancreas-specific DNA replication. Thus, the Py A enhancer is required for efficient replication of Py in the pancreas without otherwise altering organ specificity, but both of the repeated copies of the Mo-MuLV enhancer are essential for pancreas-specific Py replication. In contrast to the enhancer requirements for in vivo pancreas replication, in transformed acinar cells (266-6), PyA2 wild-type replicated efficiently and the Py-MuLV recombinant replicated inefficiently. These data suggest that the cell-specific control of DNA replication is different between normal pancreas cells and their transformed cell line counterparts and that this difference is apparent in the enhancer requirement of cell-specific Py DNA replication.     

Polyomavirus genome and polyomavirus enhancer-driven gene expression during myogenesis.

The mRNAs for myogenic functions are coordinately transcribed with polyomavirus (Py) early mRNA during in vitro differentiation of mouse C2 myoblast cells. Sequence analysis shows that the A domain of the Py enhancer includes an E1A-like consensus sequence that is also found in the 5' upstream region of two genes expressed during myoblast differentiation: alpha-actin and myosin light chain. Therefore, the coordinate expression of such genes with Py early mRNA may be activated by a common cellular regulatory factor. In the present work, we report that C2 cells surviving Py infection are unable to differentiate and do not express alpha-actin and myosin light-chain mRNAs. Hybrids between such Py-resistant myoblast cells and the parental cells exhibited dominance of the permissibility to Py growth and of the expression of myogenic mRNAs. In C2 cells transiently transfected with a chimeric plasmid (pSVPy12CAT) harboring the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene driven by the Py enhancer-promoter region, the CAT gene was expressed irrespective of their stage of differentiation. Moreover, undifferentiated stably transfected cells expressing the CAT gene restricted viral growth. Py-resistant C2 myoblasts transiently transfected with pSVPy12CAT also expressed the CAT gene driven by the Py enhancer. This contradictory finding is similar to results previously obtained by other investigators with cloned genes specific for myogenic functions, and it may be explained by a structural difference between the pSVPy12CAT and the Py genomic organizations in which the viral enhancer operates.