Skip to main content
PMC home page
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1992 Apr 11;20(7):1793–1799. doi: 10.1093/nar/20.7.1793

cis-acting elements responsible for muscle-specific expression of the myosin heavy chain beta gene.

N Shimizu 1, G Prior 1, P K Umeda 1, R Zak 1
PMCID: PMC312272  PMID: 1579472

Abstract

The 5' flanking region of the rabbit myosin heavy chain (HC) beta gene extending 295 bp upstream from the cap site provides muscle-specific transcriptional activity. In this study, we have identified and functionally characterized cis-acting elements that regulate the muscle-specific expression within this region. By using linker-scanner (LS) mutants between -295 bp and a putative TATA box, we found five distinct positive cis-acting sequences necessary for transcription: element A, the sequences between -276 and -263, which contains a putative M-CAT motif in an inverted orientation; B, the sequences between -207 and -180; C, the sequences between -136 and -127; D, the sequences between -91 and -80; and E, a TATA consensus sequence at -28. The fragment containing both A and B elements dramatically enhanced the expression of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene driven by a heterologous promoter in differentiated muscle cells, whereas fragments containing either A or B elements alone had little or no effect in either muscle or nonmuscle cells. Therefore, these two elements appear to act cooperatively in determining a high level of muscle- and stage-specific expression. Unlike the typical enhancer element, this region functions in an orientation-dependent manner. In contrast, the fragment containing C and D elements activates the heterologous promoter in both muscle and nonmuscle cells in an orientation-independent manner.

Full text

PDF

Images in this article

1795Image
on p.1795
1797Image
on p.1797

Selected References

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

  1. Bouvagnet P. F., Strehler E. E., White G. E., Strehler-Page M. A., Nadal-Ginard B., Mahdavi V. Multiple positive and negative 5' regulatory elements control the cell-type-specific expression of the embryonic skeletal myosin heavy-chain gene. Mol Cell Biol. 1987 Dec;7(12):4377–4389. doi: 10.1128/mcb.7.12.4377. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Buratowski S., Hahn S., Guarente L., Sharp P. A. Five intermediate complexes in transcription initiation by RNA polymerase II. Cell. 1989 Feb 24;56(4):549–561. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90578-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Buskin J. N., Hauschka S. D. Identification of a myocyte nuclear factor that binds to the muscle-specific enhancer of the mouse muscle creatine kinase gene. Mol Cell Biol. 1989 Jun;9(6):2627–2640. doi: 10.1128/mcb.9.6.2627. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. 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]
  5. Chodosh L. A., Baldwin A. S., Carthew R. W., Sharp P. A. Human CCAAT-binding proteins have heterologous subunits. Cell. 1988 Apr 8;53(1):11–24. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90483-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Chow K. L., Schwartz R. J. A combination of closely associated positive and negative cis-acting promoter elements regulates transcription of the skeletal alpha-actin gene. Mol Cell Biol. 1990 Feb;10(2):528–538. doi: 10.1128/mcb.10.2.528. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Clark W. A., Jr, Fischman D. A. Analysis of population cytokinetics of chick myocardial cells in tissue culture. Dev Biol. 1983 May;97(1):1–9. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(83)90057-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Cribbs L. L., Shimizu N., Yockey C. E., Levin J. E., Jakovcic S., Zak R., Umeda P. K. Muscle-specific regulation of a transfected rabbit myosin heavy chain beta gene promoter. J Biol Chem. 1989 Jun 25;264(18):10672–10678. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. 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]
  10. Gossett L. A., Kelvin D. J., Sternberg E. A., Olson E. N. A new myocyte-specific enhancer-binding factor that recognizes a conserved element associated with multiple muscle-specific genes. Mol Cell Biol. 1989 Nov;9(11):5022–5033. doi: 10.1128/mcb.9.11.5022. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Grichnik J. M., French B. A., Schwartz R. J. The chicken skeletal alpha-actin gene promoter region exhibits partial dyad symmetry and a capacity to drive bidirectional transcription. Mol Cell Biol. 1988 Nov;8(11):4587–4597. doi: 10.1128/mcb.8.11.4587. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Gustafson T. A., Kedes L. Identification of multiple proteins that interact with functional regions of the human cardiac alpha-actin promoter. Mol Cell Biol. 1989 Aug;9(8):3269–3283. doi: 10.1128/mcb.9.8.3269. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Haltiner M., Kempe T., Tjian R. A novel strategy for constructing clustered point mutations. Nucleic Acids Res. 1985 Feb 11;13(3):1015–1025. doi: 10.1093/nar/13.3.1015. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Imagawa M., Chiu R., Karin M. Transcription factor AP-2 mediates induction by two different signal-transduction pathways: protein kinase C and cAMP. Cell. 1987 Oct 23;51(2):251–260. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90152-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Johnson P. F., Landschulz W. H., Graves B. J., McKnight S. L. Identification of a rat liver nuclear protein that binds to the enhancer core element of three animal viruses. Genes Dev. 1987 Apr;1(2):133–146. doi: 10.1101/gad.1.2.133. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Jones K. A., Kadonaga J. T., Rosenfeld P. J., Kelly T. J., Tjian R. A cellular DNA-binding protein that activates eukaryotic transcription and DNA replication. Cell. 1987 Jan 16;48(1):79–89. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90358-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Laimins L. A., Gruss P., Pozzatti R., Khoury G. Characterization of enhancer elements in the long terminal repeat of Moloney murine sarcoma virus. J Virol. 1984 Jan;49(1):183–189. doi: 10.1128/jvi.49.1.183-189.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Lee D. H., Schleif R. F. In vivo DNA loops in araCBAD: size limits and helical repeat. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Jan;86(2):476–480. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.2.476. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Lin H., Yutzey K. E., Konieczny S. F. Muscle-specific expression of the troponin I gene requires interactions between helix-loop-helix muscle regulatory factors and ubiquitous transcription factors. Mol Cell Biol. 1991 Jan;11(1):267–280. doi: 10.1128/mcb.11.1.267. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Mar J. H., Ordahl C. P. A conserved CATTCCT motif is required for skeletal muscle-specific activity of the cardiac troponin T gene promoter. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Sep;85(17):6404–6408. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.17.6404. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Mar J. H., Ordahl C. P. M-CAT binding factor, a novel trans-acting factor governing muscle-specific transcription. Mol Cell Biol. 1990 Aug;10(8):4271–4283. doi: 10.1128/mcb.10.8.4271. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. 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]
  23. McKnight S. L., Kingsbury R. Transcriptional control signals of a eukaryotic protein-coding gene. Science. 1982 Jul 23;217(4557):316–324. doi: 10.1126/science.6283634. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Medford R. M., Nguyen H. T., Nadal-Ginard B. Transcriptional and cell cycle-mediated regulation of myosin heavy chain gene expression during muscle cell differentiation. J Biol Chem. 1983 Sep 25;258(18):11063–11073. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Minty A., Kedes L. Upstream regions of the human cardiac actin gene that modulate its transcription in muscle cells: presence of an evolutionarily conserved repeated motif. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 Jun;6(6):2125–2136. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.6.2125. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Nikovits W., Jr, Kuncio G., Ordahl C. P. The chicken fast skeletal troponin I gene: exon organization and sequence. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Apr 25;14(8):3377–3390. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.8.3377. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Olson E. N. MyoD family: a paradigm for development? Genes Dev. 1990 Sep;4(9):1454–1461. doi: 10.1101/gad.4.9.1454. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Quitschke W. W., DePonti-Zilli L., Lin Z. Y., Paterson B. M. Identification of two nuclear factor-binding domains on the chicken cardiac actin promoter: implications for regulation of the gene. Mol Cell Biol. 1989 Aug;9(8):3218–3230. doi: 10.1128/mcb.9.8.3218. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Sanger F., Nicklen S., Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Dec;74(12):5463–5467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Sartorelli V., Webster K. A., Kedes L. Muscle-specific expression of the cardiac alpha-actin gene requires MyoD1, CArG-box binding factor, and Sp1. Genes Dev. 1990 Oct;4(10):1811–1822. doi: 10.1101/gad.4.10.1811. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Shimizu N., Dizon E., Zak R. Both muscle-specific and ubiquitous nuclear factors are required for muscle-specific expression of the myosin heavy-chain beta gene in cultured cells. Mol Cell Biol. 1992 Feb;12(2):619–630. doi: 10.1128/mcb.12.2.619. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Uetsuki T., Nabeshima Y., Fujisawa-Sehara A., Nabeshima Y. Regulation of the chicken embryonic myosin light-chain (L23) gene: existence of a common regulatory element shared by myosin alkali light-chain genes. Mol Cell Biol. 1990 Jun;10(6):2562–2569. doi: 10.1128/mcb.10.6.2562. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Weintraub H., Davis R., Lockshon D., Lassar A. MyoD binds cooperatively to two sites in a target enhancer sequence: occupancy of two sites is required for activation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Aug;87(15):5623–5627. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.15.5623. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Wentworth B. M., Donoghue M., Engert J. C., Berglund E. B., Rosenthal N. Paired MyoD-binding sites regulate myosin light chain gene expression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Feb 15;88(4):1242–1246. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.4.1242. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  35. Wigler M., Pellicer A., Silverstein S., Axel R., Urlaub G., Chasin L. DNA-mediated transfer of the adenine phosphoribosyltransferase locus into mammalian cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Mar;76(3):1373–1376. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.3.1373. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  36. Workman J. L., Roeder R. G. Binding of transcription factor TFIID to the major late promoter during in vitro nucleosome assembly potentiates subsequent initiation by RNA polymerase II. Cell. 1987 Nov 20;51(4):613–622. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90130-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  37. Yamauchi-Takihara K., Sole M. J., Liew J., Ing D., Liew C. C. Characterization of human cardiac myosin heavy chain genes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 May;86(10):3504–3508. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.10.3504. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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

RESOURCES