scholarly journals Porcine antiviral activity is increased by CRISPRa-SAM system

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinhe Jiang ◽  
Yumei Sun ◽  
Rong Xiao ◽  
Kai Wai ◽  
Muhammad Jamil Ahmad ◽  
...  

Abstract Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat activation-synergistic activation mediator system (CRISPRa-SAM) has been efficiently used to up-regulate the targeted genes in human and mouse. But it is not known whether the CRISPRa-SAM system can be used against porcine disease because its two important transcriptional activation domains (P65 and heat shock transcription factor 1 (HSF1)) are from mouse and human, respectively. Pig is one of the most important meat sources, porcine viral infectious diseases cause massive economic losses to the swine industry and threaten the public health. We aimed to investigate whether the CRISPRa-SAM system could increase porcine antiviral activity by mediating two pig-specific target genes (Mx2 and β1,4 N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase (B4galnt2)). First, we constructed PK-15 and IPEC-J2 cell lines expressing nuclease-deficient Cas9 (dCas9)-vp64 and MS2-P65-HSF1 stably. Next, in these two cell models, we activated Mx2 and B4galnt2 expression through CRISPRa-SAM system. Antiviral activity to PRV or H9N2 was improved in PK-15 cells where Mx2 or B4galnt2 was activated. Altogether, our results demonstrated the potential of CRISPRa-SAM system as a powerful tool for activating pig genes and improving porcine antiviral activity.

1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 6201-6212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Alessandra Viganò ◽  
Giuliana Di Rocco ◽  
Vincenzo Zappavigna ◽  
Fulvio Mavilio

ABSTRACT Hox proteins control developmental patterns and cell differentiation in vertebrates by acting as positive or negative regulators of still unidentified downstream target genes. The homeodomain and other small accessory sequences encode the DNA-protein and protein-protein interaction functions which ultimately dictate target recognition and functional specificity in vivo. The effector domains responsible for either positive or negative interactions with the cell transcriptional machinery are unknown for most Hox proteins, largely due to a lack of physiological targets on which to carry out functional analysis. We report the identification of the transcriptional activation domains of three human Hox proteins, HOXB1, HOXB3, and HOXD9, which interact in vivo with the autoregulatory and cross-regulatory enhancers of the murine Hoxb-1 and human HOXD9 genes. Activation domains have been defined both in a homologous context, i.e., within a HOX protein binding as a monomer or as a HOX-PBX heterodimer to the specific target, and in a heterologous context, after translocation to the yeast Gal4 DNA-binding domain. Transfection analysis indicates that activation domains can be identified in different regions of the three HOX proteins depending on the context in which they interact with the DNA target. These results suggest that Hox proteins may be multifunctional transcriptional regulators, interacting with different cofactors and/or components of the transcriptional machinery depending on the structure of their target regulatory elements.


Development ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 126 (21) ◽  
pp. 4807-4816 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Vaudin ◽  
R. Delanoue ◽  
I. Davidson ◽  
J. Silber ◽  
A. Zider

The mammalian TEF and the Drosophila scalloped genes belong to a conserved family of transcriptional factors that possesses a TEA/ATTS DNA-binding domain. Transcriptional activation by these proteins likely requires interactions with specific coactivators. In Drosophila, Scalloped (Sd) interacts with Vestigial (Vg) to form a complex, which binds DNA through the Sd TEA/ATTS domain. The Sd-Vg heterodimer is a key regulator of wing development, which directly controls several target genes and is able to induce wing outgrowth when ectopically expressed. Here we show that Vg contains two distinct transcriptional activation domains, suggesting that the function of Vg is to mediate transcriptional activation by Sd. By expressing a chimeric GAL4-Sd protein in Drosophila, we found that the transcriptional activity of the Vg-Sd heterodimer is negatively regulated at the AP and DV boundary of the wing disc. We also identify a novel human protein, TONDU, which contains a short domain homologous to the domain of Vg required for interaction with Sd. We show that TONDU specifically interacts with a domain conserved in all the mammalian TEF factors. Expression of TDU in Drosophila by means of the UAS-GAL4 system shows that this human protein can substitute for Vg in wing formation. We propose that TDU is a specific coactivator for the mammalian TEFs.


1996 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 839-846 ◽  
Author(s):  
E M Newton ◽  
U Knauf ◽  
M Green ◽  
R E Kingston

Heat shock factor (HSF) activates transcription in response to cellular stress. Human HSF1 has a central regulatory domain which can repress the activity of its activation domains at the control temperature and render them heat shock inducible. To determine whether the regulatory domain works in tandem with specific features of the HSF1 transcriptional activation domains, we first used deletion and point mutagenesis to define these activation domains. One of the activation domains can be reduced to just 20 amino acids. A GAL4 fusion protein containing the HSF 1 regulatory domain and this 20-amino-acid activation domain is repressed at the control temperature but potently activates transcription in response to heat shock. No specific amino acids in this activation domain are required for response to the regulatory domain; in particular, none of the potentially phosphorylated serine and threonine residues are required for heat induction, implying that heat-induced phosphorylation of the transcriptional activation domains is not required for induction. The regulatory domain is able to confer heat responsiveness to an otherwise completely heterologous chimeric activator that contains a portion of the VP16 activation domain, suggesting that the regulatory domain can sense heat in the absence of other portions of HSF1.


1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 3927-3937
Author(s):  
M Kretzschmar ◽  
G Stelzer ◽  
R G Roeder ◽  
M Meisterernst

We have isolated from a crude Hela cell cofactor fraction (USA) a novel positive cofactor that cooperates with the general transcription machinery to effect efficient stimulation of transcription by GAL4-AH, a derivative of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae regulatory factor GAL4. PC2 was shown to be a 500-kDa protein complex and to be functionally and biochemically distinct from native TFIID and previously identified cofactors. In the presence of native TFIID and other general factors, PC2 was necessary and sufficient for activation by GAL4-AH. Cofactor function was specific for transcriptional activation domains of GAL4-AH. The repressor histone H1 further potentiated but was not required for activation of transcription by GAL4-AH. On the basis of the observation that PC2 exerts entirely positive effects on transcription, we propose a model in which PC2 increases the activity of the preinitiation complex in the presence of an activator, thereby establishing a specific pathway during activation of RNA polymerase II.


2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 670-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven M. Markus ◽  
Samir S. Taneja ◽  
Susan K. Logan ◽  
Wenhui Li ◽  
Susan Ha ◽  
...  

The androgen receptor (AR) is a ligand-regulated transcription factor that stimulates cell growth and differentiation in androgen-responsive tissues. The AR N terminus contains two activation functions (AF-1a and AF-1b) that are necessary for maximal transcriptional enhancement by the receptor; however, the mechanisms and components regulating AR transcriptional activation are not fully understood. We sought to identify novel factors that interact with the AR N terminus from an androgen-stimulated human prostate cancer cell library using a yeast two-hybrid approach designed to identify proteins that interact with transcriptional activation domains. A 157-amino acid protein termed ART-27 was cloned and shown to interact predominantly with the AR153–336, containing AF-1a and a part of AF-1b, localize to the nucleus and increase the transcriptional activity of AR when overexpressed in cultured mammalian cells. ART-27 also enhanced the transcriptional activation by AR153–336 fused to the LexA DNA-binding domain but not other AR N-terminal subdomains, suggesting that ART-27 exerts its effect via an interaction with a defined region of the AR N terminus. ART-27 interacts with AR in nuclear extracts from LNCaP cells in a ligand-independent manner. Interestingly, velocity gradient sedimentation of HeLa nuclear extracts suggests that native ART-27 is part of a multiprotein complex. ART-27 is expressed in a variety of human tissues, including sites of androgen action such as prostate and skeletal muscle, and is conserved throughout evolution. Thus, ART-27 is a novel cofactor that interacts with the AR N terminus and plays a role in facilitating receptor-induced transcriptional activation.


1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 3354-3362 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Green ◽  
T J Schuetz ◽  
E K Sullivan ◽  
R E Kingston

Human heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) stimulates transcription from heat shock protein genes following stress. We have used chimeric proteins containing the GAL4 DNA binding domain to identify the transcriptional activation domains of HSF1 and a separate domain that is capable of regulating activation domain function. This regulatory domain conferred heat shock inducibility to chimeric proteins containing the activation domains. The regulatory domain is located between the transcriptional activation domains and the DNA binding domain of HSF1 and is conserved between mammalian and chicken HSF1 but is not found in HSF2 or HSF3. The regulatory domain was found to be functionally homologous between chicken and human HSF1. This domain does not affect DNA binding by the chimeric proteins and does not contain any of the sequences previously postulated to regulate DNA binding of HSF1. Thus, we suggest that activation of HSF1 by stress in humans is controlled by two regulatory mechanisms that separately confer heat shock-induced DNA binding and transcriptional stimulation.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document