Control of mRNA translation in oocytes and developing embryos of giant moths. I. Function of the 5' terminal "Cap"in the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta

Injection of labeled leucine into oocytes and developing embryos of the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, revealed that the rate of protein synthesis increases dramatically after fertilization and continues to rise until gastrulation. Cell-free preparations of oocytes and developing embryos show a similar pattern of in vitro incorporation. When messenger RNA extracted from unfertilized oocytes was examined by gradient density centrifugation under denaturing conditions, a broad peak was observed which centered around 15 S. In contrast to mRNA extracted from oocytes, that from embryos was found to be capped by 7-methylguanosine at the 5′ terminus. When translation of oocyte mRNA was compared with that of embryo mRNA in a cell-free translation system derived from wheat germ, oocyte RNA translated less efficiently. In the presence of an inhibitor of methylation, S-adenosylhomocysteine, the differences were further widened. In competition with a cap analog, 7-methylguanosine 5′-monophosphate, embryo mRNA translation was inhibited more than oocyte at low concentrations of analog. These results are taken to indicate that the lack of a cap at the 5′ terminus could be one mechanism to inhibit translation prior to fertilization.     

Membrane-bound mRNAs are recruited from preinitiated ribonucleoprotein particles in injected Xenopus oocytes

Messenger RNA injected Xenopus oocytes exhibit a differential capacity for translation. mRNAs translated in the free cytoplasm are translated efficiently whereas mRNAs translated on the rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) membrane are translated inefficiently. If mRNA injected oocytes are injected additionally with proteins isolated from the RER, enhanced translation of RER-bound mRNAs is observed. When examined by sucrose gradient centrifugation and RNA dot blots, most of the injected RER-bound mRNA sediments less than or equal to the 80 S monosome. The RER proteins recruit these preinitiated mRNAs onto polysomes as evidenced by a shift in sedimentation to the polysome region of a sucrose gradient. When examined by immunoblotting, the RER proteins are shown to contain a protein which reacts specifically with an antibody directed against docking protein (SRP-receptor protein). However, this putative docking protein does not appear to be the protein which actually recruits the preinitiated mRNAs onto polysomes.     

Untranslated immunoglobulin kappa light chain mRNA in a lambda light chain-producing mouse myeloma, MOPC104E

Fourteen clones were isolated in culture from a mouse myeloma, MOPC104E. All clones had kappa and lambda types of light chain mRNAs in approximately equimolar quantity as assayed by hybridization with specific complementary DNA (cDNA). However, the myeloma produces and secretes only lambda-type light chain protein. Both kappa- and lambda-type mRNAs in these clones were indistinguishable from kappa- and lambda-type mRNAs of other myelomas with respect to (a) adsorption to oligo-(dT) cellulose, (b) molecular size (12.6 S), and (c) thermal stability of the hybrids formed with corresponding cDNA. The kappa chain mRNA of MOPC104E cells, however, was translated very inefficiently both in vivo and in vitro, whereas the lambda chain mRNA was translated efficiently. These results indicate that each cell of MOPC104E myeloma synthesizes a crippled kappa chain mRNA in addition to a normal lambda chain mRNA.     

CIRP2, a major cytoplasmic RNA-binding protein in Xenopus oocytes

In an attempt to isolate mRNA-binding proteins we fractionated Xenopus oocyte lysate by oligo(dT)–cellulose chromatography. A 20 kDa protein was the major component of the eluate. cDNA cloning revealed that this protein is a Xenopus homolog of the cold-inducible RNA-binding protein (CIRP) which was originally identified in mammalian cells as a protein that is overexpressed upon a temperature downshift. This Xenopus protein, termed here xCIRP2, is highly expressed in ovary, testis and brain in adult Xenopus tissues. In oocytes it is predominantly localized in the cytoplasm. By biochemical fractionation we provide evidence that xCIRP2 is associated with ribosomes, suggesting that it participates in translational regulation in oocytes. Microinjection of labeled mRNA into oocytes followed by UV cross-linking of the oocyte lysate led to identification of two major RNA-binding activities. Immunoprecipitation of the RNA-binding proteins demonstrated that one is xCIRP2 and that the other contains FRGY2. FRGY2, which is one of the principal constituents of mRNA storage particles involved in translational masking of maternal mRNA, has an RNA-binding domain conserved to those of bacterial cold shock proteins. Possible implications of the highly abundant expression in oocytes of cold shock RNA-binding proteins of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic types are discussed.     

Cyclin synthesis, modification and destruction during meiotic maturation of the starfish oocyte

The pattern of protein synthesis in oocytes of starfish Marthasterias glacialis changes during 1-methyladenine-induced meiotic maturation. One of the newly synthesized proteins, a major 54-kDa polypeptide, was synthesized continuously after activation but was destroyed abruptly just before appearance of the polar bodies at each meiotic division. This protein thus resembles the cyclin proteins identified in cleaving sea urchin and clam embryos. RNA extracted from oocytes before and after maturation encoded virtually identical polypeptides when translated in the reticulocyte lysate. However, there was poor correspondence between the in vitro translation products and the labelling pattern of intact cells. There was no exact in vitro counterpart to the in vivo-labelled cyclin. Instead, a major polypeptide of 52 kDa was seen which appears to be a precursor of the 54-kDa form of cyclin. The 52-kDa polypeptide was identified as cyclin by hybrid arrest of translation. Cyclin mRNA is ot translated to a significant extent before oocyte activation and is present in oocytes as nonadenylated form. It becomes polyadenylated when the oocytes mature. This behavior is also seen in the case of the mRNA for the small subunit of ribonucleotide reductase, another abundant maternal mRNA whose translation is activated at maturation.     

Protein synthesis in oocytes of Xenopus laevis is not regulated by the supply of messenger RNA

The control of protein synthesis in oocytes of Xenopus laevis has been investigated by injecting oocytes with mRNA and polysomes followed by labeling with ¹⁴C-amino acid mixtures. Contrary to previous reports in which injected oocytes were labeled with ³H-histidine, injected globin mRNA is found to decrease amino acid incorporation into endogenous proteins competitively at all concentrations tested. No increase in overall amino acid incorporation is detected when more mRNA is supplied. Similar results are obtained after labeling injected oocytes with leucine, methionine, proline or valine individually. An explanation is presented for the conflicting results obtained when histidine is used as a label.When reticulocyte polysomes are injected, rather than purified globin mRNA, incorporation of amino acids into endogenous proteins remains roughly constant and overall incorporation increases. Similarly, when encephalomyocarditis viral RNA is injected together with either globin mRNA or reticulocyte polysomes, the globin mRNA causes decreased amino acid incorporation into encephalomyocarditis proteins, but the polysomes do not do so. The results demonstrate that different types of mRNA compete for a strictly limited translational capacity which is saturated in the normal oocyte. The limiting component is present in polysomes and is not message-specific. The constraint on protein synthesis in the amphibian oocyte cannot be fully explained by masked mRNA.     

p70(S6K) controls selective mRNA translation during oocyte maturation and early embryogenesis in Xenopus laevis

In mammalian cells, p70(S6K) plays a key role in translational control of cell proliferation in response to growth factors. Because of the reliance on translational control in early vertebrate development, we cloned a Xenopus homolog of p70(S6K) and investigated the activity profile of p70(S6K) during Xenopus oocyte maturation and early embryogenesis. p70(S6K) activity is high in resting oocytes and decreases to background levels upon stimulation of maturation with progesterone. During embryonic development, three peaks of activity were observed: immediately after fertilization, shortly before the midblastula transition, and during gastrulation. Rapamycin, an inhibitor of p70(S6K) activation, caused oocytes to undergo germinal vesicle breakdown earlier than control oocytes, and sensitivity to progesterone was increased. Injection of a rapamycin-insensitive, constitutively active mutant of p70(S6K) reversed the effects of rapamycin. However, increases in S6 phosphorylation were not significantly affected by rapamycin during maturation. mos mRNA, which does not contain a 5'-terminal oligopyrimidine tract (5'-TOP), was translated earlier, and a larger amount of Mos protein was produced in rapamycin-treated oocytes. In fertilized eggs rapamycin treatment increased the translation of the Cdc25A phosphatase, which lacks a 5'-TOP. Translation assays in vivo using both DNA and RNA reporter constructs with the 5'-TOP from elongation factor 2 showed decreased translational activity with rapamycin, whereas constructs without a 5'-TOP or with an internal ribosome entry site were translated more efficiently upon rapamycin treatment. These results suggest that changes in p70(S6K) activity during oocyte maturation and early embryogenesis selectively alter the translational capacity available for mRNAs lacking a 5'-TOP region.     

Messenger RNA competition in living Xenopus oocytes.

When calf lens crystallin mRNA and rabbit globin mRNA are competing for factors limiting protein synthesis in living Xenopus oocytes, no mRNA species is preferentially selected for translation. Differences in the intrinsic translational efficiency of the mRNA species exist, but the relative efficiencies are the same at high and low mRNA concentrations. mRNAs already being translated, in particular endogenous oocyte mRNAs, are less sensitive to competitive inhibition by injected mRNAs. As injected mRNAs gradually become incorporated into the protein-synthesizing machinery of the oocyte, they acquire the same status as the oocyte's own active mRNAs. Exogenous mRNAs this become endogenous mRNAs. These results, together with previous estmates of the translational efficiency of injected heterologous mRNA species, are compatible with the assumption that a large proportion of the endogenous mRNAs is not competing for the translational apparatus of the oocyte and, therefore, probably is present in the temporarily inactivated form.     

Synthesis and modification of D7 protein during Xenopus oocyte maturation.

The Xenopus maternal mRNA D7 is translationally repressed during oogenesis, only becoming recruited into polysomes during oocyte maturation, with D7 protein being detectable for the first time prior to germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD). The synthesis of D7 protein was found to be induced by a variety of maturation-promoting agents including cyclin, c-mos and crude preparations of MPF. D7 protein induced by all these agents is post-translationally modified and exists as a number of variants of differing molecular weight. In contrast to endogenous D7 mRNA, D7 RNA injected into the stage VI oocyte is efficiently translated, resulting in the accumulation of predominantly unmodified D7 polypeptides, which become increasingly modified during oocyte maturation to produce a pattern of polypeptides similar to those derived from endogenous D7 mRNA. Thus, the system that results in the post-translational modification of the D7 protein is itself activated during oocyte maturation. The nature of the protein modification is not known but does not appear to be phosphorylation. The translation of exogenous D7 RNA in the stage VI oocyte does not lead to translational derepression of endogenous D7 mRNA.     

Direct injection of cell-free Kir1.1 protein into Xenopus oocytes replicates single-channel currents derived from Kir1.1 mRNA

The development of integral membrane protein cell-free synthesis permits in-vitro labeling of accessible cysteines for real-time FRET and LRET measurements. The functional integrity of these synthetic ion channel proteins has been verified at the whole oocyte level by direct injection into, and recording from, Xenopus oocytes. However, the microscopic single-channel properties of cell-free translated protein have not been systematically examined. In the present study, we compare patch-clamp currents originating from cell-free protein with currents derived from mRNA injection, using the same (single-Cys) inward rectifier DNA template (C189-Kir1.1b). Results indicate that cell-free Kir protein, incorporated into liposomes and injected into oocytes, is trafficked to the plasma membrane where it inserts in an outside-out orientation and exhibits single-channel characteristics identical to that derived from a corresponding mRNA.     

Translation of mouse interferon mRNA in Xenopus laevis oocytes and in rabbit reticulocyte lysates

Mouse interferon mRNA, extracted from NDV (Newcastle disease virus)-induced L-929 cells has been translated with high efficiency in $\text{Xenopus laevis}$ oocytes and rabbit reticulocyte lysates. The translational efficiency of a crude RNA extract was 10 640 interferon units/mg RNA/hour for the $\text{Xenopus}$ oocytes and 4 012 interferon units/mg RNA/hour for the reticulocyte lysates. The translation product fulfilled the usual criteria for mouse interferon, $\text{viz.}$ species specificity and neutralization by specific anti-mouse interferon antiserum. Upon injection of crude interferon mRNA into $\text{Xenopus}$ oocytes, interferon activity appeared both in the oocyte homogenates and the oocyte incubation medium. When analyzed by velocity sedimentation in formamidesucrose, the mouse interferon mRNA showed a rather sharp peak halfway between the 4 S and 18 S RNA markers, as could be expected from a mRNA which codes for a 20,000 dalton protein.     

Cell-free translation of messenger RNA from oocytes of Xenopus laevis

The poly(A)⁺ RNA which accumulates during oogenesis in the amphibian Xenopus laevis is shown to be functional mRNA; the RNA was active in the mRNA-dependent “shift assay” for initiation sites in the rabbit reticulocyte lysate, and was an efficient template for protein synthesis in the wheat-germ cell-free system. Analysis of the in vitro protein products showed no differences between the coding properties of poly(A)⁺ RNA extracted from oocytes at all stages of development from previtellogenesis to maturity. In previtellogenic oocytes, the in vitro products of polysomal and of mRNP-associated poly(A)⁺ RNA were also identical. Neither was there any evidence for changes in the coding properties of the poly(A)⁺ mRNA of the oocyte. However, the patterns of oocyte in vivo protein synthesis changed markedly during early vitellogenesis. We conclude that the mRNP-associated poly(A)⁺ RNA present in mature oocytes constitutes the stored maternal mRNA, and that during oogenesis the coding composition of the poly(A)⁺ mRNA synthesised does not change markedly, while some form of translational control operates to direct the changing pattern of protein synthesis.     

Investigating the Surface Expression of the Renal Type IIa Na+/P i -Cotransporter in Xenopus laevis Oocytes

We have combined a functional assay, surface labeling and immunocytochemical methods to compare total and surface-exposed renal type IIa Na⁺/P _i cotransporter protein. The wild-type type cotransporter (NaPi-IIa) and its functionally comparable cysteine mutant S460C were expressed in Xenopus oocytes. S460C contains a novel cysteine residue that, when modified by preincubation with methanethiosulfonate reagents, leads to complete suppression of cotransport function. This allowed surface labeling of the S460C using MTSEA-Biotin and confirmation by electrophysiology on the same cell. Protein was analyzed by Western blotting before and after streptavidin precipitation and by immunocytochemistry and immunogold electronmicroscopy. MTSEA-Biotin treatment resulted in a complete inhibition of S460C-mediated Na⁺/P _i -cotransport activity, which indicated that all transporters at the surface were biotinylated. After biotinylation, only a small fraction of total S460C protein was precipitated by streptavidin compared with the total amount of S460C protein detected in the lysate. Light- and electron-microscopy analysis of oocytes showed a large amount of WT and S460C transporter protein beneath the oocyte membrane. These data indicate that the apparent weak labeling efficiencies of surface-biotinylation-based assays of membrane proteins heterologously expressed in oocytes can be related to diminished incorporation of the protein in the oolemma. Received: 18 August 2000/Revised: 1 December 2000     

Message stability in injected frog oocytes: long life of mammalian alpha and beta globin messages

The stability of messenger RNA for rabbit and mouse α and β globin has been tested by injection into living frog oocytes, which were subsequently cultured for up to two weeks. [³H]histidine was added to the culture medium at various times and incorporated into haemoglobin whose synthesis was measured by Sephadex and carboxymethylcellulose chromatography. α Globin mRNA is translated only 20% as efficiently as β globin mRNA after injection into oocytes; the same messages are translated with almost equal efficiency if tested in a reticulocyte cell-free system, or if injected into oocytes as unpurified reticulocyte polysomes. For up to two weeks, injected haemoglobin mRNA was about as stable as the mRNAs of the host oocyte. The injected mRNAs for α and β mouse globins also had a similar stability. A fall in the absolute rate of amino acid incorporation into haemoglobin was observed in oocytes that were labelled for several days, but this could be wholly accounted for by a decrease in the efficiency of the oocytes' translational system. The synthesis of β globin from each molecule of injected β mRNA takes place over a longer period of time, when the mRNA is injected into oocytes, than would have been the case if it had remained in the reticulocytes from which it was prepared. We conclude that α and β globin mRNA molecules are very stable in oocytes, and we suggest that the translational life of a message may be determined in part by the kind of cell in which it operates.     

Synthesis and glycosylation of the MOPC-46B immunoglobulin in kappa chain in Xenopus laevis oocytes.

Polyadenylated mRNA isolated from MOPC-46B plasmacytoma, which secretes a glycosylated kappa chain, was injected into $\text{Xenopus laevis}$ oocytes. Analysis of the resulting product showed that [1-¹⁴C]mannose was incorporated into the MOPC-46B kappa chain. Light chains synthesized in oocytes injected with mRNA from MOPC-321 plasmacytoma, which secretes a nonglycosylated kappa chain, failed to incorporate label from [1-¹⁴C]mannose. Thus, protein glycosylation in the oocyte is apparently specific in that carbohydrate is incorporated only into the kappa chain synthesized as a glycoprotein by myeloma cells. It is thus evident that the general signals for glycosylation have remained stable during independent evolution of the amphibia and mammalia.     

Physiologically relevant miRNAs in mammalian oocytes are rare and highly abundant

miRNAs, ~22nt small RNAs associated with Argonaute (AGO) proteins, are important negative regulators of gene expression in mammalian cells. However, mammalian maternal miRNAs show negligible repressive activity and the miRNA pathway is dispensable for oocytes and maternal‐to‐zygotic transition. The stoichiometric hypothesis proposed that this is caused by dilution of maternal miRNAs during oocyte growth. As the dilution affects miRNAs but not mRNAs, it creates unfavorable miRNA:mRNA stoichiometry for efficient repression of cognate mRNAs. Here, we report that porcine ssc‐miR‐205 and bovine bta‐miR‐10b are exceptional miRNAs, which resist the diluting effect of oocyte growth and can efficiently suppress gene expression. Additional analysis of ssc‐miR‐205 shows that it has higher stability, reduces expression of endogenous targets, and contributes to the porcine oocyte‐to‐embryo transition. Consistent with the stoichiometric hypothesis, our results show that the endogenous miRNA pathway in mammalian oocytes is intact and that maternal miRNAs can efficiently suppress gene expression when a favorable miRNA:mRNA stoichiometry is established.     

Abrogation of cell surface expression of human class I transplantation antigens by an adenovirus protein in Xenopus laevis oocytes

Class I transplantation antigens form complexes with a virus protein encoded in the early region E3 of the adenovirus-2 genome. The interaction between this viral glycoprotein, E19, and nascent human class I antigens has been examined by microinjecting purified mRNA into Xenopus laevis oocytes. Both E19 and the two class I antigen subunits, the heavy chain and beta 2-microglobulin (beta 2M), were efficiently translated. The heavy chains did not become terminally glycosylated, as monitored by endoglycosidase H digestion, and were not expressed on the oocyte surface unless they were associated with beta 2M. The E19 protein did not become terminally glycosylated, and we failed to detect this viral protein on the surface of the oocytes. Co-translation of heavy chain and E19 mRNA demonstrated that the two proteins associate intracellularly. However, neither protein appeared to be transported to the trans-Golgi compartment. Similar observations were made in adenovirus-infected HeLa cells. Heavy chains bound to beta 2M became terminally glycosylated in oocytes in the presence of low concentrations of E19. At high concentrations of the viral protein, no carbohydrate modifications and no cell surface expression of class I antigens were apparent. Thus, beta 2M and E19 have opposite effects on the intracellular transport of the heavy chains. These data suggest that adenovirus-2 may impede the cell surface expression of class I antigens to escape immune surveillance.