scholarly journals CENP-B binds a novel centromeric sequence in the Asian mouse Mus caroli.

1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 4009-4020 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Kipling ◽  
A R Mitchell ◽  
H Masumoto ◽  
H E Wilson ◽  
L Nicol ◽  
...  

Minor satellite DNA, found at Mus musculus centromeres, is not present in the genome of the Asian mouse Mus caroli. This repetitive sequence family is speculated to have a role in centromere function by providing an array of binding sites for the centromere-associated protein CENP-B. The apparent absence of CENP-B binding sites in the M. caroli genome poses a major challenge to this hypothesis. Here we describe two abundant satellite DNA sequences present at M. caroli centromeres. These satellites are organized as tandem repeat arrays, over 1 Mb in size, of either 60- or 79-bp monomers. All autosomes carry both satellites and small amounts of a sequence related to the M. musculus major satellite. The Y chromosome contains small amounts of both major satellite and the 60-bp satellite, whereas the X chromosome carries only major satellite sequences. M. caroli chromosomes segregate in M. caroli x M. musculus interspecific hybrid cell lines, indicating that the two sets of chromosomes can interact with the same mitotic spindle. Using a polyclonal CENP-B antiserum, we demonstrate that M. caroli centromeres can bind murine CENP-B in such an interspecific cell line, despite the absence of canonical 17-bp CENP-B binding sites in the M. caroli genome. Sequence analysis of the 79-bp M. caroli satellite reveals a 17-bp motif that contains all nine bases previously shown to be necessary for in vitro binding of CENP-B. This M. caroli motif binds CENP-B from HeLa cell nuclear extract in vitro, as indicated by gel mobility shift analysis. We therefore suggest that this motif also causes CENP-B to associate with M. caroli centromeres in vivo. Despite the sequence differences, M. caroli presents a third, novel mammalian centromeric sequence producing an array of binding sites for CENP-B.

2006 ◽  
Vol 188 (9) ◽  
pp. 3208-3218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britton Ranson-Olson ◽  
Denise F. Jones ◽  
Timothy J. Donohue ◽  
Jill H. Zeilstra-Ryalls

ABSTRACT The hemA gene codes for one of two synthases in Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1 which catalyze the formation of 5-aminolevulinic acid. We have examined the role of PrrA, a DNA binding protein that is associated with the metabolic switch between aerobic growth and anoxygenic photosynthetic growth, in hemA expression and found that hemA transcription is directly activated by PrrA. Using electrophoretic mobility shift assays and DNase I protection assays, we have mapped two binding sites for PrrA within the hemA upstream sequences, each of which contains an identical 9-bp motif. Using lacZ transcription reporter plasmids in wild-type strain 2.4.1 and PrrA− mutant strain PRRA2, we showed that PrrA was required for maximal expression. We also found that the relative impacts of altering DNA sequences within the two binding sites are different depending on whether cells are growing aerobically or anaerobically. This reveals a greater level of complexity associated with PrrA-mediated regulation of transcription than has been heretofore described. Our findings are of particular importance with respect to those genes regulated by PrrA having more than one upstream binding site. In the case of the hemA gene, we discuss possibilities as to how these new insights can be accommodated within the context of what has already been established for hemA transcription regulation in R. sphaeroides.


Microbiology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 155 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svenja S. Nentwich ◽  
Karina Brinkrolf ◽  
Lars Gaigalat ◽  
Andrea T. Hüser ◽  
Daniel A. Rey ◽  
...  

The gene products of the rbsRACBD (rbs) operon of C. glutamicum (cg1410–cg1414) encode a ribose-specific ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transport system and its corresponding regulatory protein (RbsR). Deletion of the structural genes rbsACBD prohibited ribose uptake. Deletion of the regulatory gene rbsR resulted in an increased mRNA level of the whole operon. Analysis of the promoter region of the rbs operon by electrophoretic mobility shift assays identified a catabolite-responsive element (cre)-like sequence as the RbsR-binding site. Additional RbsR-binding sites were identified in front of the recently characterized uriR operon (uriR-rbsK1-uriT-uriH) and the ribokinase gene rbsK2. In vitro, the repressor RbsR bound to its targets in the absence of an effector. A probable negative effector of RbsR in vivo is ribose 5-phosphate or a derivative thereof, since in a ribokinase (rbsK1 rbsK2) double mutant, no derepression of the rbs operon in the presence of ribose was observed. Analysis of the ribose stimulon in the C. glutamicum wild-type revealed transcriptional induction of the uriR and rbs operons as well as of the rbsK2 gene. The inconsistency between the existence of functional RbsR-binding sites upstream of the ribokinase genes, their transcriptional induction during growth on ribose, and the missing induction in the rbsR mutant suggested the involvement of a second transcriptional regulator. Simultaneous deletion of the regulatory genes rbsR and uriR finally demonstrated a transcriptional co-control of the rbs and uriR operons and the rbsK2 gene by both regulators, RbsR and UriR, which were furthermore shown to recognize the same cognate DNA sequences in the operators of their target genes.


1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 887-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
A R Buchman ◽  
R D Kornberg

ABFI (ARS-binding protein I) is a yeast protein that binds specific DNA sequences associated with several autonomously replicating sequences (ARSs). ABFI also binds sequences located in promoter regions of some yeast genes, including DED1, an essential gene of unknown function that is transcribed constitutively at a high level. ABFI was purified by specific binding to the DED1 upstream activating sequence (UAS) and was found to recognize related sequences at several other promoters, at an ARS (ARS1), and at a transcriptional silencer (HMR E). All ABFI-binding sites, regardless of origin, provided weak UAS function in vivo when examined in test plasmids. UAS function was abolished by point mutations that reduced ABFI binding in vitro. Analysis of the DED1 promoter showed that two ABFI-binding sites combine synergistically with an adjacent T-rich sequence to form a strong constitutive activator. The DED1 T-rich element acted synergistically with all other ABFI-binding sites and with binding sites for other multifunctional yeast activators. An examination of the properties of sequences surrounding ARS1 left open the possibility that ABFI enhances the initiation of DNA replication at ARS1 by transcriptional activation.


Microbiology ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 151 (6) ◽  
pp. 1779-1788 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham P. Stafford ◽  
Tomoo Ogi ◽  
Colin Hughes

The gene hierarchy directing biogenesis of peritrichous flagella on the surface of Escherichia coli and other enterobacteria is controlled by the heterotetrameric master transcriptional regulator FlhD2C2. To assess the extent to which FlhD2C2 directly activates promoters of a wider regulon, a computational screen of the E. coli genome was used to search for gene-proximal DNA sequences similar to the 42–44 bp inverted repeat FlhD2C2 binding consensus. This identified the binding sequences upstream of all eight flagella class II operons, and also putative novel FlhD2C2 binding sites in the promoter regions of 39 non-flagellar genes. Nine representative non-flagellar promoter regions were all bound in vitro by active reconstituted FlhD2C2 over the K D range 38–356 nM, and of the nine corresponding chromosomal promoter–lacZ fusions, those of the four genes b1904, b2446, wzz fepE and gltI showed up to 50-fold dependence on FlhD2C2 in vivo. In comparison, four representative flagella class II promoters bound FlhD2C2 in the K D range 12–43 nM and were upregulated in vivo 30- to 990-fold. The FlhD2C2-binding sites of the four regulated non-flagellar genes overlap by 1 or 2 bp the predicted −35 motif of the FlhD2C2-activated σ 70 promoters, as is the case with FlhD2C2-dependent class II flagellar promoters. The data indicate a wider FlhD2C2 regulon, in which non-flagellar genes are bound and activated directly, albeit less strongly, by the same mechanism as that regulating the flagella gene hierarchy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (17) ◽  
pp. 8310-8319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Sanchez-Vazquez ◽  
Colin N. Dewey ◽  
Nicole Kitten ◽  
Wilma Ross ◽  
Richard L. Gourse

The second messenger nucleotide ppGpp dramatically alters gene expression in bacteria to adjust cellular metabolism to nutrient availability. ppGpp binds to two sites on RNA polymerase (RNAP) inEscherichia coli, but it has also been reported to bind to many other proteins. To determine the role of the RNAP binding sites in the genome-wide effects of ppGpp on transcription, we used RNA-seq to analyze transcripts produced in response to elevated ppGpp levels in strains with/without the ppGpp binding sites on RNAP. We examined RNAs rapidly after ppGpp production without an accompanying nutrient starvation. This procedure enriched for direct effects of ppGpp on RNAP rather than for indirect effects on transcription resulting from starvation-induced changes in metabolism or on secondary events from the initial effects on RNAP. The transcriptional responses of all 757 genes identified after 5 minutes of ppGpp induction depended on ppGpp binding to RNAP. Most (>75%) were not reported in earlier studies. The regulated transcripts encode products involved not only in translation but also in many other cellular processes. In vitro transcription analysis of more than 100 promoters from the in vivo dataset identified a large collection of directly regulated promoters, unambiguously demonstrated that most effects of ppGpp on transcription in vivo were direct, and allowed comparison of DNA sequences from inhibited, activated, and unaffected promoter classes. Our analysis greatly expands our understanding of the breadth of the stringent response and suggests promoter sequence features that contribute to the specific effects of ppGpp.


2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (20) ◽  
pp. e129-e129
Author(s):  
Hector Zenil ◽  
Peter Minary

AbstractWe introduce and study a set of training-free methods of an information-theoretic and algorithmic complexity nature that we apply to DNA sequences to identify their potential to identify nucleosomal binding sites. We test the measures on well-studied genomic sequences of different sizes drawn from different sources. The measures reveal the known in vivo versus in vitro predictive discrepancies and uncover their potential to pinpoint high and low nucleosome occupancy. We explore different possible signals within and beyond the nucleosome length and find that the complexity indices are informative of nucleosome occupancy. We found that, while it is clear that the gold standard Kaplan model is driven by GC content (by design) and by k-mer training; for high occupancy, entropy and complexity-based scores are also informative and can complement the Kaplan model.


2001 ◽  
Vol 155 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Fortin ◽  
Sean P. Cregan ◽  
Jason G. MacLaurin ◽  
Neena Kushwaha ◽  
Emma S. Hickman ◽  
...  

p53 is a transcriptional activator which has been implicated as a key regulator of neuronal cell death after acute injury. We have shown previously that p53-mediated neuronal cell death involves a Bax-dependent activation of caspase 3; however, the transcriptional targets involved in the regulation of this process have not been identified. In the present study, we demonstrate that p53 directly upregulates Apaf1 transcription as a critical step in the induction of neuronal cell death. Using DNA microarray analysis of total RNA isolated from neurons undergoing p53-induced apoptosis a 5–6-fold upregulation of Apaf1 mRNA was detected. Induction of neuronal cell death by camptothecin, a DNA-damaging agent that functions through a p53-dependent mechanism, resulted in increased Apaf1 mRNA in p53-positive, but not p53-deficient neurons. In both in vitro and in vivo neuronal cell death processes of p53-induced cell death, Apaf1 protein levels were increased. We addressed whether p53 directly regulates Apaf1 transcription via the two p53 consensus binding sites in the Apaf1 promoter. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated p53–DNA binding activity at both p53 consensus binding sequences in extracts obtained from neurons undergoing p53-induced cell death, but not in healthy control cultures or when p53 or the p53 binding sites were inactivated by mutation. In transient transfections in a neuronal cell line with p53 and Apaf1 promoter–luciferase constructs, p53 directly activated the Apaf1 promoter via both p53 sites. The importance of Apaf1 as a p53 target gene in neuronal cell death was evaluated by examining p53-induced apoptotic pathways in primary cultures of Apaf1-deficient neurons. Neurons treated with camptothecin were significantly protected in the absence of Apaf1 relative to those derived from wild-type littermates. Together, these results demonstrate that Apaf1 is a key transcriptional target for p53 that plays a pivotal role in the regulation of apoptosis after neuronal injury.


2002 ◽  
Vol 115 (11) ◽  
pp. 2317-2327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Politi ◽  
Giovanni Perini ◽  
Stefania Trazzi ◽  
Artem Pliss ◽  
Ivan Raska ◽  
...  

CENP-C is a fundamental component of the centromere, highly conserved among species and necessary for the proper assembly of the kinetochore structure and for the metaphase-anaphase transition. Although CENP-C can bind DNA in vitro,the identification of the DNA sequences associated with it in vivo and the significance of such an interaction have been, until now, elusive. To address this problem we took advantage of a chromatin-immunoprecipitation procedure and applied this technique to human HeLa cells. Through this approach we could establish that: (1) CENP-C binds the alpha-satellite DNA selectively; (2) the CENP-C region between amino acids 410 and 537, previously supposed to contain a DNA-binding domain, is indeed required to perform such a function in vivo;and (3) the profile of the alpha-satellite DNA associated with CENP-C is essentially identical to that recognized by CENP-B. However, further biochemical and ultrastructural characterization of CENP-B/DNA and CENP-C/DNA complexes, relative to their DNA components and specific spatial distribution in interphase nuclei, surprisingly reveals that CENP-C and CENP-B associate with the same types of alpha-satellite arrays but in distinct non-overlapping centromere domains. Our results, besides extending previous observations on the role of CENP-C in the formation of active centromeres, show, for the first time, that CENP-C can associate with the centromeric DNA sequences in vivo and, together with CENP-B, defines a highly structured organization of the alpha-satellite DNA within the human centromere.


2009 ◽  
Vol 192 (3) ◽  
pp. 624-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michèle Coddeville ◽  
Paul Ritzenthaler

ABSTRACT The integrase of the temperate bacteriophage mv4 catalyzes site-specific recombination between the phage attP site and the host attB site during Lactobacillus delbrueckii lysogenization. The mv4 prophage is excised during the induction of lytic growth. Excisive site-specific recombination between the attR and attL sites is also catalyzed by the phage-encoded recombinase, but the directionality of the recombination is determined by a second phage-encoded protein, the recombination directionality factor (RDF). We have identified and functionally characterized the RDF involved in site-specific excision of the prophage genome. The mv4 RDF, mv4Xis, is encoded by the second gene of the early lytic operon. It is a basic protein of 56 amino acids. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated that mv4Xis binds specifically to the attP and attR sites via two DNA-binding sites, introducing a bend into the DNA. In vitro experiments and in vivo recombination assays with plasmids in Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus plantarum demonstrated that mv4Xis is absolutely required for inter- or intramolecular recombination between the attR and attL sites. In contrast to the well-known phage site-specific recombination systems, the integrative recombination between the attP and attB sites seems not to be inhibited by the presence of mv4Xis.


2007 ◽  
Vol 75 (11) ◽  
pp. 5509-5517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangchun Bai ◽  
Michaela A. Gazdik ◽  
Damen D. Schaak ◽  
Kathleen A. McDonough

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium tuberculosis Rv3676 encodes a cyclic AMP (cAMP) receptor-like protein (CRPMt) that has been implicated in global gene regulation and may play an important role during tuberculosis infection. The CRPMt ortholog in Mycobacterium bovis BCG, CRPBCG, is dysfunctional in an Escherichia coli CRP competition assay and has been proposed as a potential source of M. bovis BCG's attenuation. We compared CRPBCG and CRPMt in vitro and in vivo, in M. bovis BCG and M. tuberculosis, to evaluate CRPBCG's potential function in a mycobacterial system. Both proteins formed dimers in mycobacterial lysates, bound to the same target DNA sequences, and were similarly affected by the presence of cAMP in DNA binding assays. However, CRPMt and CRPBCG differed in their relative affinities for specific DNA target sequences and in their susceptibilities to protease digestion. Surprisingly, CRPBCG DNA binding activity was stronger than that of CRPMt both in vitro and in vivo, as measured by electrophoretic mobility shift and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Nutrient starvation-associated regulation of several CRPMt regulon members also differed between M. bovis BCG and M. tuberculosis. We conclude that CRPBCG is a functional cAMP-responsive DNA binding protein with an in vivo DNA binding profile in M. bovis BCG similar to that of CRPMt in M. tuberculosis. However, biologically significant functional differences may exist between CRPBCG and CRPMt with respect to gene regulation, and this issue warrants further study.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document