Vertebrate histone genes: nucleotide sequence of a chicken H2A gene and regulatory flanking sequences.

The DNA sequence of a chicken genomal fragment containing a histone H2A gene has been determined. It contains extensive 5' and 3' flanking regions and encodes a protein identical in sequence to the histone H2A protein isolated from chicken erythrocytes. In the 5' flanking region, a possible "TATA box" and three possible "cap sites" can be recognised upstream from the initiation codon. To the 5' side of the "TATA box" is found an unusual sequence of 21 A's interrupted by a central G residue. It occupies the same relative position as the P. miliaris H2A gene-specific 5' dyad symmetry sequence and the "CCAAT box" seen in other eukaryotic polymerase II genes but is clearly different from both. A significant feature of the 3' non-coding region is the presence of a 23 base-pair sequence that is nearly identical to a conserved region found in sea urchin histone genes. The coding region is extremely GC rich, with strong selection for these bases in the third position of codons. Not a single coding triplet ends in U. No intervening sequences were found in this gene.     

Isolation and characterization of the chicken ovomucoid gene.

The chicken ovomucoid gene has been isolated by screening a chicken DNA library with a plasmid containing ovomucoid mRNA sequences. Twelve recombinant phages carrying ovomucoid mRNA sequences were isolated. Two of them, extending farthest into the 5' and 3' direction respectively, were characterized by restriction mapping and Southern hybridization as well as by electron microscopic analysis of hybrids between the cloned DNA and ovomucoid mRNA. Seven intervening sequences interrupt the ovomucoid mRNA sequence in chromosomal DNA. From these data a minimal size of 5.6 kb can be estimated for the length of the ovomucoid gene.     

Complete nucleotide sequence of the chicken alpha A-crystallin gene and its 5' flanking region

The chicken alpha A-crystallin gene and 2.6 kb of its 5' flanking sequence have been isolated and characterized by electron microscopy and sequencing. The structural gene is 4.5 kb long and contains two introns, each approx. 1 kb in length. The first intron divides codons 63 and 64, and the second intron divides codons 104 and 105, as in rodents. There is little indication that the insert exon of rodents (an alternatively spliced sequence) is present in complete form in the chicken alpha A-crystallin gene; small stretches of similarity to this sequence were found throughout the gene. The 5' flanking sequence of the chicken alpha A-crystallin gene shows considerable sequence similarity with other mammalian alpha B-crystallin genes. In addition, one consensus sequence (GCAGCATGCCCTCCTAG) present in the 5' flanking region of the chicken alpha A-crystallin gene was found in the 5' flanking region of most reported crystallin genes.     

Organization of nucleotide sequences in the chicken genome

The four major components of chicken DNA were prepared by density gradient centrifugation and characterized in several basic properties: relative amounts, dG + dC content, buoyant densities, compositional heterogeneity, and reassociation kinetics. While the relative amounts and the compositions of the major components of chicken DNA were similar to those found in mammalian genomes, their compositional heterogeneities were found to be narrower. The relative amounts of interspersed repeated and unique sequences were strikingly different in different components and also different from those found in the corresponding major components of mouse and human DNAs. If one takes into consideration that major DNA components (a) account for practically all of main-band DNA and (b) derive by preparative breakage from very long DNA segments of fairly homogeneous composition, the isochores, our findings indicate that the distribution of interspersed repeats is different in different chromosomal regions and is species-specific.     

Evaluation of the flanking nucleotide sequences of sarcomeric hypertrophic cardiomyopathy substitution mutations

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a familial myocardial disease with a prevalence of 1 in 500. More than 400 causative mutations have been identified in 13 sarcomeric and myofilament related genes, 350 of these are substitution mutations within eight sarcomeric genes. Within a population, examples of recurring identical disease causing mutations that appear to have arisen independently have been noted as well as those that appear to have been inherited from a common ancestor. The large number of novel HCM mutations could suggest a mechanism of increased mutability within the sarcomeric genes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the most commonly reported HCM genes, beta myosin heavy chain (MYH7), myosin binding protein C, troponin I, troponin T, cardiac regulatory myosin light chain, cardiac essential myosin light chain, alpha tropomyosin and cardiac alpha-actin for sequence patterns surrounding the substitution mutations that may suggest a mechanism of increased mutability. The mutations as well as the 10 flanking nucleotides were evaluated for frequency of di-, tri- and tetranucleotides containing the mutation as well as for the presence of certain tri- and tetranculeotide motifs. The most common substitutions were guanine (G) to adenine (A) and cytosine (C) to thymidine (T). The CG dinucleotide had a significantly higher relative mutability than any other dinucleotide (p<0.05). The relative mutability of each possible trinucleotide and tetranucleotide sequence containing the mutation was calculated; none were at a statistically higher frequency than the others. The large number of G to A and C to T mutations as well as the relative mutability of CG may suggest that deamination of methylated CpG is an important mechanism for mutation development in at least some of these cardiac genes.     

Organization, sequence and nuclease hypersensitivity of repetitive elements flanking the chicken apoVLDLII gene: extended sequence similarity to elements flanking the chicken vitellogenin gene.

Analysis of nuclease hypersensitivity of regions flanking the estrogen-dependent, chicken apoVLDLII gene has revealed an hepatic, DNaseI hypersensitive site whose sensitivity is influenced by both the developmental stage and sex of the bird. The site is located 3.0kb upstream from the gene, in a block of middle repetitive elements. Contact hybridization studies indicate that the block consists of contiguous copies of two elements with reiteration frequencies of 500-1000 and 10,000-30,000 copies per haploid genome. Sequencing of 1.8kb spanning the repeats has revealed that the higher frequency element is a member of the CR1 family. The adjacent lower frequency repeat can also be found next to another member of the CR1 family located in the 3' flanking region of the vitellogenin gene. The hypersensitive site has been mapped to one of the two most highly conserved regions of the CR1 element. This region displays homology with a silencer sequence recently identified in a CR1 element flanking the chicken lysozyme gene.     

Sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins which interact with (G + C)-rich sequences flanking the chicken c-myc gene

The interaction of nuclear sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins from definitive chicken erythrocytes, thymus and proliferating transformed erythroid precursor (HD3) cells with the 700-base-pair (700-bp) DNA 5'-flanking region of the chicken c-myc gene was investigated by in vitro footprint analysis. The major HD3 protein-binding activity binds to a site (site V) 200 bp upstream from the 'cap' site but, after further fractionation, a second distinct binding activity is detected to a site (site VIII) which contains both the 'CAAT' and 'SP1-binding' consensus sequences. Protein from thymus and erythrocyte cells which express c-myc at lower levels, bind to seven and eight sites respectively. In common with HD3 cell protein, they both bind to site VIII and, although binding to the sequence at site V is also detected, the footprint protection pattern is sufficiently different (site V') to suggest the involvement of different proteins in terminally differentiated and proliferating cells. The DNA-binding activities were partially fractionated by high-performance liquid chromatography gel filtration and include an erythrocyte-specific protein which binds to a c-myc gene poly(dG) homopolymer sequence similar to that found upstream of the chicken beta A-globin gene.     

Analysis of the primary structure of DNA sequences flanking MDG1

MDG is a very important component of the Drosophila genome. MDG have many sites of localisation in chromosomes and can change their localisation. Perhaps the process of MDG integration has some specificity. To study this problem we sequenced the flanking region of MDG1 DNA. The analysis of this sequences reveals the following features. 1. The 5'-flanking sequences contain 7 TATA-boxex, 5 of which form a cluster. 2. The 3'-flanking sequences contain TTTAAA block which is similar to TATA-box for alpha- and gamma-casein genes of mammals. 3. The flanking region are rich in repeated sequences, the longest of which TCCTCCT (R) and TTCTTC (R2) are on the 5'-flank and on the 3'-flank respectively, so that the whole structure is: 5'-R1NNR1-MDG1-R2NNR2-3', where N is some nucleotide. 5'-flanking sequences are AT-rich, while the 3'-flank contains 10 consecutive thymidines 4 nucleotides apart from MDG1. The MDG1 and MDG "17.6" share several common repeats in the flanking sequences, the longest of which TACTTACAT is 63 bases upstream MDG1 and 11 bases upstream MDG "17.6". This sequence differs strongly from the consensus enhancer sequence.     

Molecular modelling of the 3-D structure of RNA tetraloops with different nucleotide sequences.

One surprisingly common element of RNA secondary structure consists of a hairpin capped by a four-base loop (or the tetraloop). Recently the 3-D structures of two RNA-tetraloops have been determined by NMR-studies. Both structures have a similar architecture: the first and the last bases of the loop form a hydrogen bonded pair which is stacked on the stem base pair. We have analysed the ability of tetraloops, with the other combinations of the first and the fourth bases, to adopt such a 'diloop' conformation using computer modelling. The analysis has shown that the 'diloop' conformation has many covalent and steric constraints which give a possibility for reliable structural predictions. As a result, a set of the tetraloop 3-D structures in which hydrogen bonded pairing of the first and the last bases does not cause covalent and steric hindrances has been selected. In most cases several predicted 3-D structures corresponded to one tetraloop sequence. Taking into consideration the folding pathway of RNA hairpins we have resolved this ambiguity and predicted the most probable 3-D structure for every possible nucleotide sequence of the tetraloop. On the basis of these results a conclusion has been drawn on the possible reasons of the tetraloop phylogenetic preference.     

携带armA基因的铜绿假单胞菌耐药性及基因周边环境

目的 了解多重耐药(MDR)铜绿假单胞菌armA基因与可移动遗传元件的携带情况及其相关性;分析armA基因的周边环境, 探讨armA基因转移的可能机制。 方法 收集MDR铜绿假单胞菌98株,琼脂稀释法测定MIC,PCR方法检测16S rRNA甲基化酶基因armA、I型整合子、可移动元件IS26及重要耐药基因侧翼基因环境,测序并拼接PCR产物明确耐药基因座位排列,并对armA基因进行周边序列分析。 结果 98株MDR铜绿假单胞菌检出5株armA基因PCR扩增阳性,携带armA基因的菌株对庆大霉素和阿米卡星全耐药;检出20株携带I型整合子,17株携带可移动元件IS26;armA基因扩增阳性的菌株均携带I型整合子和IS26;序列测序显示armA定位于Tn1548相关区域,位于插入序列ISCR1的下游,该序列含多种移动元件。 结论 大连市氨基糖苷类高水平耐药基因armA广泛分布在MDR铜绿假单胞菌中,均对庆大霉素和阿米卡星高度耐药;该基因定位在转座子Tn1548的质粒上,提示16S rRNA甲基化酶基因armA的广泛播散可能是可移动元件ISCR1 armA IS26结构参与其中。     

Molecular cloning of extensive sequences of the in vitro synthesized chicken ovalbumin structural gene.

Double-stranded DNA molecules complementary to ovalbumin chicken messenger RNA were synthesized in vitro and integrated into the E. coli plasmid pCR1 using an oligodG-dc tailing procedure. The resultant hybrid plasmids, amplified by transfection of E. coli, were shown by hybridization and gel electrophoresis to contain extensive DNA sequences of the ovalbumin structural gene.     

Molecular cloning and nucleotide sequences of the complementary DNAs to chicken skeletal muscle myosin two alkali light chain mRNAs.

We report here the molecular cloning and sequence analysis of DNAs complementary to mRNAs for myosin alkali light chain of chicken embryo and adult leg skeletal muscle. pSMA2-1 contained an 818 base-pair insert that includes the entire coding region and 5' and 3' untranslated regions of A2 mRNA. pSMA1-1 contained a 848 base-pair insert that included the 3' untranslated region and almost all of the coding region except for the N-terminal 13 amino acid residues of the A1 light chain. The 741 nucleotide sequences of A1 and A2 mRNAs corresponding to C-terminal 141 amino acid residues and 3' untranslated regions were identical. The 5' terminal nucleotide sequences corresponding to N-terminal 35 amino acid residues of A1 chain were quite different from the sequences corresponding to N-terminal 8 amino acid residues and of the 5' untranslated region of A2 mRNA. These findings are discussed in relation to the structures of the genes for A1 and A2 mRNA.     

Molecular phylogeny of Japanese Catocala moths based on nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial ND5 gene

Phylogenetic relationships of 31 Japanese Catocala species were analyzed based on the partial nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 (ND5) gene (762 bp). When several non-Catocala Noctuidae moths were designated as the outgroup, these Catocala species formed a monophyletic group. However, divergences between these Catocala species were very deep, and no close phylogenetic relationships were recognized among them except for that between the two recently separated species, C. xarippe and C. fulminea. The remote relationships implied for several pairs of species suggest that the color of the hindwings is a changeable characteristic, and does not reflect phylogenetic lineage. Continental specimens were analyzed in 20 of 31 Catocala species, and all of them showed a close relationship with their Japanese counterpart. However, the closeness of the nucleotide sequences between the Japanese and continental individuals of the same species varied from species to species, indicating that isolation between the Japanese and continental populations of these species occurred at many different times. The two analyzed species endemic to North America showed a close relationship with their morphologically inferred Japanese counterparts, indicating that the geographic separation and following speciation between these Eurasian and American species occurred much more recently compared with the speciation events among the Catocala species now found in Japan.