Skip to main content
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1992 Mar 11;20(5):975–982. doi: 10.1093/nar/20.5.975

The initiation accuracy of the SV40 early transcription is determined by the functional domains of two TATA elements.

M Pauly 1, M Treger 1, E Westhof 1, P Chambon 1
PMCID: PMC312079  PMID: 1312710

Abstract

To locate the boundaries of the TATA element in the SV40 early promoter, point mutations have been constructed such as to cover the whole T + A-rich region of the replication origin. The effects of these mutations on the rate of transcription in vivo show that this region actually contains two TATA elements I and II, each independently directing the accurate initiation of transcription from a specified set of start sites, EES1 and EES2, respectively. The sequence of TATA element I fits best with the compiled 'consensus' sequence found in eukaryotic gene promoters and is the most efficient in directing transcription initiation. Mutations which improve this fit can still increase the rate of transcription, confirming the theory of a correlation between the nucleotide sequence of a TATA element and its functional efficiency. Moreover, some mutations which simultaneously modify the angle of DNA curvature in the T + A-rich promoter region and the rate of transcription reveal a correlation between DNA bending and transcription initiation.

Full text

PDF
980

Images in this article

Selected References

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

  1. Barrera-Saldana H., Takahashi K., Vigneron M., Wildeman A., Davidson I., Chambon P. All six GC-motifs of the SV40 early upstream element contribute to promoter activity in vivo and in vitro. EMBO J. 1985 Dec 30;4(13B):3839–3849. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb04156.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Baty D., Barrera-Saldana H. A., Everett R. D., Vigneron M., Chambon P. Mutational dissection of the 21 bp repeat region of the SV40 early promoter reveals that it contains overlapping elements of the early-early and late-early promoters. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Jan 25;12(2):915–932. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.2.915. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Baur C. P., Knippers R. Protein-induced bending of the simian virus 40 origin of replication. J Mol Biol. 1988 Oct 20;203(4):1009–1019. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(88)90125-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Benoist C., Chambon P. In vivo sequence requirements of the SV40 early promotor region. Nature. 1981 Mar 26;290(5804):304–310. doi: 10.1038/290304a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Breathnach R., Chambon P. Organization and expression of eucaryotic split genes coding for proteins. Annu Rev Biochem. 1981;50:349–383. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.50.070181.002025. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Bucher P., Trifonov E. N. Compilation and analysis of eukaryotic POL II promoter sequences. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Dec 22;14(24):10009–10026. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.24.10009. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Collis C. M., Molloy P. L., Both G. W., Drew H. R. Influence of the sequence-dependent flexure of DNA on transcription in E. coli. Nucleic Acids Res. 1989 Nov 25;17(22):9447–9468. doi: 10.1093/nar/17.22.9447. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Deb S., DeLucia A. L., Koff A., Tsui S., Tegtmeyer P. The adenine-thymine domain of the simian virus 40 core origin directs DNA bending and coordinately regulates DNA replication. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 Dec;6(12):4578–4584. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.12.4578. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Fromm M., Berg P. Transcription in vivo from SV40 early promoter deletion mutants without repression by large T antigen. J Mol Appl Genet. 1983;2(1):127–135. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Fromm M., Berg P. Transcription in vivo from SV40 early promoter deletion mutants without repression by large T antigen. J Mol Appl Genet. 1983;2(1):127–135. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Ghosh P. K., Lebowitz P., Frisque R. J., Gluzman Y. Identification of a promoter component involved in positioning the 5' termini of simian virus 40 early mRNAs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Jan;78(1):100–104. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.1.100. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Grundström T., Zenke W. M., Wintzerith M., Matthes H. W., Staub A., Chambon P. Oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis by microscale 'shot-gun' gene synthesis. Nucleic Acids Res. 1985 May 10;13(9):3305–3316. doi: 10.1093/nar/13.9.3305. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Hansen U., Tenen D. G., Livingston D. M., Sharp P. A. T antigen repression of SV40 early transcription from two promoters. Cell. 1981 Dec;27(3 Pt 2):603–613. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90402-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Hertz G. Z., Young M. R., Mertz J. E. The A+T-rich sequence of the simian virus 40 origin is essential for replication and is involved in bending of the viral DNA. J Virol. 1987 Jul;61(7):2322–2325. doi: 10.1128/jvi.61.7.2322-2325.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Lebowitz P., Ghosh P. K. Initiation and regulation of simian virus 40 early transcription in vitro. J Virol. 1982 Feb;41(2):449–461. doi: 10.1128/jvi.41.2.449-461.1982. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Lilley D. DNA structure. Bent molecules--how and why? Nature. 1986 Apr 10;320(6062):487–488. doi: 10.1038/320487a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Mathis D. J., Chambon P. The SV40 early region TATA box is required for accurate in vitro initiation of transcription. Nature. 1981 Mar 26;290(5804):310–315. doi: 10.1038/290310a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Maxam A. M., Gilbert W. Sequencing end-labeled DNA with base-specific chemical cleavages. Methods Enzymol. 1980;65(1):499–560. doi: 10.1016/s0076-6879(80)65059-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Myers R. M., Rio D. C., Robbins A. K., Tjian R. SV40 gene expression is modulated by the cooperative binding of T antigen to DNA. Cell. 1981 Aug;25(2):373–384. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90056-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Nandi A., Das G., Salzman N. P. Characterization of a surrogate TATA box promoter that regulates in vitro transcription of the simian virus 40 major late gene. Mol Cell Biol. 1985 Mar;5(3):591–594. doi: 10.1128/mcb.5.3.591. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Plaskon R. R., Wartell R. M. Sequence distributions associated with DNA curvature are found upstream of strong E. coli promoters. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Jan 26;15(2):785–796. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.2.785. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Reznikoff W. S., Siegele D. A., Cowing D. W., Gross C. A. The regulation of transcription initiation in bacteria. Annu Rev Genet. 1985;19:355–387. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ge.19.120185.002035. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Takahashi K., Vigneron M., Matthes H., Wildeman A., Zenke M., Chambon P. Requirement of stereospecific alignments for initiation from the simian virus 40 early promoter. Nature. 1986 Jan 9;319(6049):121–126. doi: 10.1038/319121a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Travers A. A. Why bend DNA? Cell. 1990 Jan 26;60(2):177–180. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90729-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Travers A. DNA structure. Curves with a function. Nature. 1989 Sep 21;341(6239):184–185. doi: 10.1038/341184a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Wallace R. B., Johnson M. J., Suggs S. V., Miyoshi K., Bhatt R., Itakura K. A set of synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotide primers for DNA sequencing in the plasmid vector pBR322. Gene. 1981 Dec;16(1-3):21–26. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(81)90057-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Wasylyk B. Transcription elements and factors of RNA polymerase B promoters of higher eukaryotes. CRC Crit Rev Biochem. 1988;23(2):77–120. doi: 10.3109/10409238809088317. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Wasylyk B., Wasylyk C., Matthes H., Wintzerith M., Chambon P. Transcription from the SV40 early-early and late-early overlapping promoters in the absence of DNA replication. EMBO J. 1983;2(9):1605–1611. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1983.tb01631.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Wu H. M., Crothers D. M. The locus of sequence-directed and protein-induced DNA bending. Nature. 1984 Apr 5;308(5959):509–513. doi: 10.1038/308509a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Zenke M., Grundström T., Matthes H., Wintzerith M., Schatz C., Wildeman A., Chambon P. Multiple sequence motifs are involved in SV40 enhancer function. EMBO J. 1986 Feb;5(2):387–397. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04224.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Nucleic Acids Research are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES