Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1988 Oct;85(20):7526–7530. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.20.7526

Synergistic action of glucocorticoid and estradiol responsive elements.

W Ankenbauer 1, U Strähle 1, G Schütz 1
PMCID: PMC282224  PMID: 3174650

Abstract

Modulation of gene expression by steroid hormones is mediated by receptor proteins that associate with regulatory elements of responsive genes upon binding the hormone ligand. The finding that two glucocorticoid responsive elements act cooperatively to stimulate transcription of the tyrosine aminotransferase gene prompted us to explore whether synergistic effects also occur when two different steroid hormone receptors are involved. A region of the chicken vitellogenin II gene that displays homologies to glucocorticoid and estradiol responsive elements was tested for its capability to confer estradiol and glucocorticoid inducibility to a heterologous promoter. When positioned immediately upstream of the thymidine kinase gene promoter, this element enhances expression by either steroid. Combination of both hormones results in a synergistic increase of transcription. Mutational analysis shows that sequences that show similarities of glucocorticoid and estradiol responsive elements are absolutely required for hormone induction. Analysis of the dose dependence of induction by both steroids demonstrates that half-maximal activity is observed at lower hormone concentrations when the other steroid is present in saturating amounts, which suggests that the synergistic induction observed with the combination of hormones is based on a functional interaction of the two hormone receptors.

Full text

PDF
7526

Images in this article

7527Image
on p.7527
7527Image
on p.7527

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Burch J. B. Identification and sequence analysis of the 5' end of the major chicken vitellogenin gene. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Jan 25;12(2):1117–1135. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.2.1117. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cato A. C., Miksicek R., Schütz G., Arnemann J., Beato M. The hormone regulatory element of mouse mammary tumour virus mediates progesterone induction. EMBO J. 1986 Sep;5(9):2237–2240. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04490.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Chirgwin J. M., Przybyla A. E., MacDonald R. J., Rutter W. J. Isolation of biologically active ribonucleic acid from sources enriched in ribonuclease. Biochemistry. 1979 Nov 27;18(24):5294–5299. doi: 10.1021/bi00591a005. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Gorman C. M., Moffat L. F., Howard B. H. Recombinant genomes which express chloramphenicol acetyltransferase in mammalian cells. Mol Cell Biol. 1982 Sep;2(9):1044–1051. doi: 10.1128/mcb.2.9.1044. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Horwitz K. B., Zava D. T., Thilagar A. K., Jensen E. M., McGuire W. L. Steroid receptor analyses of nine human breast cancer cell lines. Cancer Res. 1978 Aug;38(8):2434–2437. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Jantzen H. M., Strähle U., Gloss B., Stewart F., Schmid W., Boshart M., Miksicek R., Schütz G. Cooperativity of glucocorticoid response elements located far upstream of the tyrosine aminotransferase gene. Cell. 1987 Apr 10;49(1):29–38. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90752-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Jost J. P., Seldran M., Geiser M. Preferential binding of estrogen-receptor complex to a region containing the estrogen-dependent hypomethylation site preceding the chicken vitellogenin II gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Jan;81(2):429–433. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.2.429. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Klein-Hitpass L., Kaling M., Ryffel G. U. Synergism of closely adjacent estrogen-responsive elements increases their regulatory potential. J Mol Biol. 1988 Jun 5;201(3):537–544. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(88)90635-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Klein-Hitpass L., Ryffel G. U., Heitlinger E., Cato A. C. A 13 bp palindrome is a functional estrogen responsive element and interacts specifically with estrogen receptor. Nucleic Acids Res. 1988 Jan 25;16(2):647–663. doi: 10.1093/nar/16.2.647. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Klein-Hitpass L., Schorpp M., Wagner U., Ryffel G. U. An estrogen-responsive element derived from the 5' flanking region of the Xenopus vitellogenin A2 gene functions in transfected human cells. Cell. 1986 Sep 26;46(7):1053–1061. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90705-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Klock G., Strähle U., Schütz G. Oestrogen and glucocorticoid responsive elements are closely related but distinct. Nature. 1987 Oct 22;329(6141):734–736. doi: 10.1038/329734a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Luckow B., Schütz G. CAT constructions with multiple unique restriction sites for the functional analysis of eukaryotic promoters and regulatory elements. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Jul 10;15(13):5490–5490. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.13.5490. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Martinez E., Givel F., Wahli W. The estrogen-responsive element as an inducible enhancer: DNA sequence requirements and conversion to a glucocorticoid-responsive element. EMBO J. 1987 Dec 1;6(12):3719–3727. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02706.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Miksicek R., Heber A., Schmid W., Danesch U., Posseckert G., Beato M., Schütz G. Glucocorticoid responsiveness of the transcriptional enhancer of Moloney murine sarcoma virus. Cell. 1986 Jul 18;46(2):283–290. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90745-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Ptashne M. Gene regulation by proteins acting nearby and at a distance. Nature. 1986 Aug 21;322(6081):697–701. doi: 10.1038/322697a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Ringold G. M. Steroid hormone regulation of gene expression. Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol. 1985;25:529–566. doi: 10.1146/annurev.pa.25.040185.002525. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Robertson M. Gene regulation: specificity and flexibility. Nature. 1987 Jun 11;327(6122):464–466. doi: 10.1038/327464a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Scheidereit C., Westphal H. M., Carlson C., Bosshard H., Beato M. Molecular model of the interaction between the glucocorticoid receptor and the regulatory elements of inducible genes. DNA. 1986 Oct;5(5):383–391. doi: 10.1089/dna.1986.5.383. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Seiler-Tuyns A., Walker P., Martinez E., Mérillat A. M., Givel F., Wahli W. Identification of estrogen-responsive DNA sequences by transient expression experiments in a human breast cancer cell line. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Nov 25;14(22):8755–8770. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.22.8755. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Strähle U., Klock G., Schütz G. A DNA sequence of 15 base pairs is sufficient to mediate both glucocorticoid and progesterone induction of gene expression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Nov;84(22):7871–7875. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.22.7871. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Théveny B., Bailly A., Rauch C., Rauch M., Delain E., Milgrom E. Association of DNA-bound progesterone receptors. Nature. 1987 Sep 3;329(6134):79–81. doi: 10.1038/329079a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Walker P., Germond J. E., Brown-Luedi M., Givel F., Wahli W. Sequence homologies in the region preceding the transcription initiation site of the liver estrogen-responsive vitellogenin and apo-VLDLII genes. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Nov 26;12(22):8611–8626. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.22.8611. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Yamamoto K. R. Steroid receptor regulated transcription of specific genes and gene networks. Annu Rev Genet. 1985;19:209–252. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ge.19.120185.001233. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES