Bi-directional Duplex Promoters with Duplicated Enhancers Significantly Increase Transgene Expression in Grape and Tobacco

Novel bi-directional duplex promoters (BDDP) were constructed by placing two identical core promoters divergently on both upstream and downstream sides of their duplicated enhancer elements. Estimates of promoter function were obtained by creating versions of CaMV 35S and CsVMV BDDPs that contained reporter marker genes encoding beta-glucuronidase (GUS) and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) interchangeably linked either to the upstream or downstream core promoters. GUS was used for quantitative analysis of promoter function, whereas, EGFP allowed visual qualitative evaluation. In addition, the GUS and EGFP genes placed in downstream positions were modified by translational fusion with neomycin phosphotransferase (NPTII) to allow simultaneous monitoring of promoter activity and selection of stable transformants. These versions of BDDP were compared with each other and with equivalent unidirectional constructs by evaluating their expression in grape and tobacco. For 35S promoter constructs tested in grape somatic embryos (SE), BDDP exhibited transient GUS expression 206- and 300-fold greater in downstream and upstream configurations, respectively, compared to a unidirectional 35S core promoter. Compared with a unidirectional double enhanced 35S promoter, BDDPs exhibited 0.5- and 3-fold increased GUS expression from downstream and upstream core promoters, respectively. The same differences in expression levels determined quantitatively with GUS were distinguished qualitatively with EGFP. Constructs using CsVMV core promoters yielded results relative to those obtained with 35S promoter. For example, the upstream BDDP CsVMV core promoter provided a 200-fold increase in GUS expression compared to a unidirectional core promoter. However, CsVMV promoter was found to have higher promoter activity than 35S promoter in both BDDP and unidirectional constructs. Incorporation of an additional duplicated enhancer element to BDDPs resulted in increased expression. For example, a 35S BDDP with two divergently arranged duplicated enhancer elements resulted in over a 6-fold increase in GUS expression in stably transformed tobacco plants compared to a BDDP with one duplicated enhancer element. Data demonstrate that BDDP composed of divergently-arranged core promoters separated by duplicated enhancers, all derived from a single promoter sequence, can be used to significantly enhance transgene expression and to direct synchronized expression of multiple transgenes.     

Transgene Expression in the Vegetative Tissues of Apple Driven by the Vascular-specific rolC and CoYMV Promoters

The ability of the heterologous promoters, rolCP and CoYMVP, to drive expression of the gusA reporter gene in the vegetative tissues of apple (Malus pumila Mill.) has been studied using transgenic plants produced by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Replicate plants of each transgenic clone were propagated in soil to a uniform size and samples of leaf, petiole, stem, and root were taken for the measurement of -glucuronidase (GUS) activity by fluorometric assay. The levels of expression were compared with those in tissues of a representative clone containing the CaMV 35S promoter. These quantitative GUS data were related to the copy number of transgene loci assessed by Southern blotting. The CoYMV promoter was slightly more active than the rolC promoter, although both expressed gusA at a lower level than the CaMV 35S promoter. In clones containing the rolC promoter with multiple transgene loci, expression values were generally among the highest or lowest in the range. The precise location of GUS activity in each tissue was identified by staining of whole leaves and tissue sections with a chromogenic substrate. This analysis demonstrated that with both the rolC and CoYMV promoters the reporter gene activity was primarily localised to vascular tissues, particularly the phloem. Our results indicate that both promoters would be suitable to drive the expression of transgenes to combat pests and diseases of apple that are dependent on interaction with the phloem.     

Decreased Expression of a Gene Caused by a T-DNA Insertion in an Adjacent Gene in Arabidopsis

ALADIN is a component of the nuclear pore complex in higher eukaryotes. An Arabidopsis knockout line that had a T-DNA insertion in the ALADIN gene was defective in plant growth and thylakoid development and had reduced photosynthetic activity resulting from lower chlorophyll accumulation. The mutation appeared to decrease the level of chloroplast RuBisCO subunits and PSBA and PGL35 proteins. Unexpectedly, the T-DNA insertion in the ALADIN gene decreased the expression of the neighboring gene PSRP5, which functions in translation in chloroplasts. The mutant phenotype was rescued by expressing PSRP5, but not by expressing ALADIN. The abnormal phenotypes were also detected in an artificial microRNA (amiRNA)-mediated PSRPS5 knockdown, but not in an amiRNA-mediated ALADIN knockdown line. Thus, users of T-DNA insertions should be aware that a T-DNA insertion in one gene can have effects on the expression of neighboring genes.     

不同启动子对于牛催乳素表达的调控作用

在细胞水平上比较不同启动子对于牛催乳素(bPRL)表达的调控作用.分别构建了以CMV启动子、牛催乳素基因启动子和山羊β-酪蛋白基因启动子作为调控元件的bPRL真核细胞表达载体,分别命名为pCMV、pPRLP和pP1A3.将3种载体分别转染小鼠垂体瘤细胞和小鼠乳腺上皮细胞,使用RT-PCR和定量RT-PCR分析3种启动子启动bPRL在2种细胞系中的表达效果.pCMV在2种细胞中有效表达bPRL;pPRLP在2种细胞中的表达效果与pCMV接近:pP1A3不在垂体细胞中表达,在乳腺细胞中表达.pPlA3具有乳腺表达特异性;pPRLP能够在垂体和乳腺中高表达,在其他组织的表达特异性有待进一步研究.     

Characterization of Constitutive Promoters for piggyBac Transposon-Mediated Stable Transgene Expression in Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs)

Multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can undergo self-renewal and give rise to multi-lineages under given differentiation cues. It is frequently desirable to achieve a stable and high level of transgene expression in MSCs in order to elucidate possible molecular mechanisms through which MSC self-renewal and lineage commitment are regulated. Retroviral or lentiviral vector-mediated gene expression in MSCs usually decreases over time. Here, we choose to use the piggyBac transposon system and conduct a systematic comparison of six commonly-used constitutive promoters for their abilities to drive RFP or firefly luciferase expression in somatic HEK-293 cells and MSC iMEF cells. The analyzed promoters include three viral promoters (CMV, CMV-IVS, and SV40), one housekeeping gene promoter (UbC), and two composite promoters of viral and housekeeping gene promoters (hEFH and CAG-hEFH). CMV-derived promoters are shown to drive the highest transgene expression in HEK-293 cells, which is however significantly reduced in MSCs. Conversely, the composite promoter hEFH exhibits the highest transgene expression in MSCs whereas its promoter activity is modest in HEK-293 cells. The reduced transgene expression driven by CMV promoters in MSCs may be at least in part caused by DNA methylation, or to a lesser extent histone deacetlyation. However, the hEFH promoter is not significantly affected by these epigenetic modifications. Taken together, our results demonstrate that the hEFH composite promoter may be an ideal promoter to drive long-term and high level transgene expression using the piggyBac transposon vector in progenitor cells such as MSCs.     

The Influence of the Global Gene Expression Shift on Downstream Analyses

The assumption that total abundance of RNAs in a cell is roughly the same in different cells is underlying most studies based on gene expression analyses. But experiments have shown that changes in the expression of some master regulators such as c-MYC can cause global shift in the expression of almost all genes in some cell types like cancers. Such shift will violate this assumption and can cause wrong or biased conclusions for standard data analysis practices, such as detection of differentially expressed (DE) genes and molecular classification of tumors based on gene expression. Most existing gene expression data were generated without considering this possibility, and are therefore at the risk of having produced unreliable results if such global shift effect exists in the data. To evaluate this risk, we conducted a systematic study on the possible influence of the global gene expression shift effect on differential expression analysis and on molecular classification analysis. We collected data with known global shift effect and also generated data to simulate different situations of the effect based on a wide collection of real gene expression data, and conducted comparative studies on representative existing methods. We observed that some DE analysis methods are more tolerant to the global shift while others are very sensitive to it. Classification accuracy is not sensitive to the shift and actually can benefit from it, but genes selected for the classification can be greatly affected.     

Rabies Virus Vector Transgene Expression Level and Cytotoxicity Improvement Induced by Deletion of Glycoprotein Gene

The glycoprotein (G) of rabies virus (RV) is required for binding to neuronal receptors and for viral entry. G-deleted RV vector is a powerful tool for investigating the organization and function of the neural circuits. It gives the investigator the ability to genetically target initial infection to particular neurons and to control trans-synaptic propagation. In this study we have quantitatively evaluated the effect of G gene deletion on the cytotoxicity and transgene expression level of the RV vector. We compared the characteristics of the propagation-competent RV vector (rHEP5.0-CVSG-mRFP) and the G-deleted RV vector (rHEP5.0-ΔG-mRFP), both of which are based on the attenuated HEP-Flury strain and express monomeric red fluorescent protein (mRFP) as a transgene. rHEP5.0-ΔG-mRFP showed lower cytotoxicity than rHEP5.0-CVSG-mRFP, and within 16 days of infection we found no change in the basic electrophysiological properties of neurons infected with the rHEP5.0-ΔG-mRFP. The mRFP expression level of rHEP5.0-ΔG-mRFP was much higher than that of rHEP5.0-CVSG-mRFP, and 3 days after infection the retrogradely infected neurons were clearly visualized by the expressed fluorescent protein without any staining. This may be due to the low cytotoxicity and/or the presumed change in the polymerase gene (L) expression level of the G-deleted RV vector. Although the mechanisms remains to be clarified, the results of this study indicate that deletion of the G gene greatly improves the usability of the RV vector for studying the organization and function of the neural circuits by decreasing the cytotoxicity and increasing the transgene expression level.     

三种组成型启动子调控的鼠李糖脂基因在防御假单胞菌中的异源表达及活性研究

本研究利用Red/ETDNA重组技术对实验室已有的含鼠李糖基转移酶基因RhlAB的分泌表达载体pBBR1-genta-RhlAB进行修饰,将3种不同强度组成型启动子(Papra、Ptac和PrhaB)成功替换了RhlAB基因在铜绿假单胞菌中的原始启动子,成功获得了表达载体pBBR1-genta-Papra-RhlAB,pBBR1-kan-Ptac-RhlAB和pBBR1-kan-PrhaB-RhlAB,并将这些表达载体分别在防御假单胞菌Pf-5中异源表达,通过LB培养基发酵42h后,Pf-5/pBBR1-genta-RhlAB的鼠李糖脂产量为17.56mg/L,而Pf-5/pBBR1-genta-Papra-RhlAB,Pf-5/pBBR1-kan-Ptac-RhlAB和Pf-5/pBBR1-kan-PrhaB-RhlAB分别是11.135mg/L,441.135mg/L,557.764mg/L,启动子优化后产量分别是原始启动子的0.63,25.12和31.76倍。对发酵产物进行高效液相色谱-质谱联用技术分析,共检出相对含量变化的4类质核比不同的鼠李糖脂同系物。并通过实时荧光定量PCR检测RhlAB基因的表达量,发现启动子替换为Ptac和PrhaB后RhlAB基因表达量分别是原始启动子的2.16和2.77倍。本研究初步实现了RhlAB基因在Pf-5中的表达,发现组成型启动子Ptac和PrhaB比RhlAB的原始启动子表达效率更高,可为异源合成鼠李糖脂提供重要参考。     

Regulated Expression of a Sindbis Virus Replicon by Herpesvirus Promoters

We describe the use of herpesvirus promoters to regulate the expression of a Sindbis virus replicon (SINrep/LacZ). We isolated cell lines that contain the cDNA of SINrep/LacZ under the control of a promoter from a herpesvirus early gene which requires regulatory proteins encoded by immediate-early genes for expression. Wild-type Sindbis virus and replicons derived from this virus cause death of most vertebrate cells, but the cells discussed here grew normally and expressed the replicon and β-galactosidase only after infection with a herpesvirus. Vero cell lines in which the expression of SINrep/LacZ was regulated by the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infected-cell protein 8 promoter were generated. One Vero cell line (V3-45N) contained, in addition to the SINrep/LacZ cDNA, a Sindbis virus-defective helper cDNA which provides the structural proteins for packaging the replicon. Infection of V3-45N cells with HSV-1 resulted in the production of packaged SINrep/LacZ replicons. HSV-1 induction of the Sindbis virus replicon and packaging and spread of the replicon led to enhanced expression of the reporter gene, suggesting that this type of cell could be used to develop sensitive assays to detect herpesviruses. We also isolated a mink lung cell line that was transformed with SINrep/LacZ cDNA under the control of the promoter from the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) early gene UL45. HCMV carries out an abortive infection in mink lung cells, but it was able to induce the SINrep/LacZ replicon. These results, and those obtained with an HSV-1 mutant, demonstrate that this type of signal amplification system could be valuable for detecting herpesviruses for which a permissive cell culture system is not available.     

用于异源基因表达的毕赤酵母启动子研究进展

甲醇营养型毕赤酵母是一个广泛使用的蛋白表达宿主系统,易于高密度发酵、具有真核细胞翻译后加工修饰特点,适于异源蛋白分泌表达。转录调控是控制蛋白高效表达的关键环节,启动子是其中重要的元件。毕赤酵母表达系统中应用最为广泛的是甲醇诱导型AOX1启动子和组成型的GAP启动子,已成功用于一些异源蛋白的表达。近年来,发现了其他一些可供利用的启动子,包括来自管家基因的启动子如TEF、PGK1,以及具有特殊调控机制的启动子如FLD、PHO89等。此外,通过对启动子进行序列改造,构建启动子文库,实现了对启动子的精细调控。不同的启动子具有各自独特的调控机制与特点,就毕赤酵母启动子在异源蛋白表达应用中的相关研究进展进行综述。     

Sequences of Transgene Insertion Sites in Transgenic F4 Common Carp

Transgenic Research -     

Promoters of Rice Seed Storage Protein Genes Direct Endosperm-Specific Gene Expression in Transgenic Rice

The promoters of genes encoding rice seed storage proteins (glutelin,prolamin, globulin and albumin) were analyzed for their abilityto direct rß-gIucuronidase (GUS) gene expression intransgenic rice plants. All promoters tested could direct endosperm-specificexpression of the GUS reporter gene irrespective of variableactivities and patterns in the endosperm. (Received February 27, 1998; Accepted May 16, 1998)