Improved expression vectors for eukaryotic promoter/enhancer studies.

We describe two transfectable vectors designed to facilitate the functional analysis of eukaryotic promoter/enhancer sequences. The first, pJFCAT1, is an improved chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene expression vector with two features that distinguish it from the majority of other CAT vectors currently in use: 1) it carries a trimer cassette of the simian virus 40 major late polyadenylation site to block plasmid-initiated read-through expression of CAT, and 2) it includes the phage f1 origin of replication, permitting generation of single-stranded copies to serve as templates for oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis or single-strand DNA sequencing. The promoterless pJFCAT1 directs little if any CAT activity in transfected mouse L cells and, therefore, may be particularly useful for the analysis of weak promoters whose activity is otherwise masked by background CAT expression. The second vector, pTAG-1, uses human beta-globin as a reporter gene and was designed to facilitate the analysis of reporter gene expression at the RNA level. Like pJFCAT1, pTAG-1 also includes the simian virus 40 polyadenylation site trimer cassette located just upstream of the promoter insertion site. We have used each of these vectors to study functional elements in the human and mouse thymidine kinase promoters.     

核酶在大肠杆菌内对烟草花叶病毒靶RNA的切割作用

把一段取自TMV RNA的靶cDNA序列连接在一个体内表达转录载体内的报道基因CAT起译密码子ATG的下游组成了读码框不改变的CAT融合基因,通过测定载体在大肠杆菌内表达的CAT活力变化,观察了与CAT同时表达的核酶在体内对靶序列的作用。当专一核酶RZ1、RZ1A或RZ1表达时,CAT的酶活力下降了30%,但非专一核酶RZ3的表达并不改变CAT活力。凝胶电泳和引物延伸结果表明CAT活力的下降是由于这些核酶对融合CAT mRNA在5’靶序列区发生了专一切割从而影响了蛋白的合成所致。