Skip to main content
NCBI 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
. 1986 May;83(10):3199–3203. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.10.3199

Activation of gene expression is adversely affected at high multiplicities of linked simian virus 40 enhancer.

R Kumar, T A Firak, C T Schroll, K N Subramanian
PMCID: PMC323480  PMID: 3010281

Abstract

We have cloned multiple copies of 72-base-pair (bp) repeat transcriptional enhancer element from simian virus 40 in plasmid vectors upstream from the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene under the control of the simian virus 40 early promoter. Two copies of the 72-bp repeat provided efficient activation of gene expression. Increasing the number of linked 72-bp units to four substantially improved the activation of gene expression, but further addition of enhancers diminished the activation of gene expression proportionally to the number of enhancers added. Enhancer regions containing 10 or more copies of the 72-bp sequence were very inefficient in gene activation. Plasmids containing such expanded enhancer regions also competed less efficiently in vivo for trans-acting enhancer-binding factors. These effects are specific for the enhancer element and are not produced by reiterations of the 21-bp promoter element. Multiple enhancer units placed upstream do not interfere with the accuracy of mRNA initiation directed by the simian virus 40 early promoter in these plasmid constructs but do severely inhibit the initiation of replication at the neighboring simian virus 40 origin of replication that overlaps the early promoter region. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the structural alterations induced in the DNA by a large number of copies of the enhancer are not favorable for the activation of a linked gene or for the binding of factors believed to mediate the enhancement effect.

Full text

PDF
3199

Images in this article

3201Image
on p.3201
3201Image
on p.3201
3201Image
on p.3201

Selected References

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

  1. 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]
  2. Dhar R., McClements W. L., Enquist L. W., Vande Woude G. F. Nucleotide sequences of integrated Moloney sarcoma provirus long terminal repeats and their host and viral junctions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Jul;77(7):3937–3941. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.7.3937. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Fiers W., Contreras R., Haegemann G., Rogiers R., Van de Voorde A., Van Heuverswyn H., Van Herreweghe J., Volckaert G., Ysebaert M. Complete nucleotide sequence of SV40 DNA. Nature. 1978 May 11;273(5658):113–120. doi: 10.1038/273113a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Gheysen D., van de Voorde A., Contreras R., Vanderheyden J., Duerinck F., Fiers W. Simian virus 40 mutants carrying extensive deletions in the 72-base-pair repeat region. J Virol. 1983 Jul;47(1):1–14. doi: 10.1128/jvi.47.1.1-14.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Ghosh P. K., Lebowitz P. Simian virus 40 early mRNA's contain multiple 5' termini upstream and downstream from a Hogness-Goldberg sequence; a shift in 5' termini during the lytic cycle is mediated by large T antigen. J Virol. 1981 Oct;40(1):224–240. doi: 10.1128/jvi.40.1.224-240.1981. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gluzman Y. SV40-transformed simian cells support the replication of early SV40 mutants. Cell. 1981 Jan;23(1):175–182. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90282-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gorman C. M., Merlino G. T., Willingham M. C., Pastan I., Howard B. H. The Rous sarcoma virus long terminal repeat is a strong promoter when introduced into a variety of eukaryotic cells by DNA-mediated transfection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Nov;79(22):6777–6781. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.22.6777. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. 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]
  9. Hartzell S. W., Byrne B. J., Subramanian K. N. The simian virus 40 minimal origin and the 72-base-pair repeat are required simultaneously for efficient induction of late gene expression with large tumor antigen. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Oct;81(20):6335–6339. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.20.6335. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hearing P., Shenk T. The adenovirus type 5 E1A transcriptional control region contains a duplicated enhancer element. Cell. 1983 Jul;33(3):695–703. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90012-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Herr W., Gluzman Y. Duplications of a mutated simian virus 40 enhancer restore its activity. Nature. 1985 Feb 21;313(6004):711–714. doi: 10.1038/313711a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Jongstra J., Reudelhuber T. L., Oudet P., Benoist C., Chae C. B., Jeltsch J. M., Mathis D. J., Chambon P. Induction of altered chromatin structures by simian virus 40 enhancer and promoter elements. Nature. 1984 Feb 23;307(5953):708–714. doi: 10.1038/307708a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Laimins L. A., Khoury G., Gorman C., Howard B., Gruss P. Host-specific activation of transcription by tandem repeats from simian virus 40 and Moloney murine sarcoma virus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Nov;79(21):6453–6457. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.21.6453. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. 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]
  15. Mercola M., Goverman J., Mirell C., Calame K. Immunoglobulin heavy-chain enhancer requires one or more tissue-specific factors. Science. 1985 Jan 18;227(4684):266–270. doi: 10.1126/science.3917575. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Nordheim A., Rich A. Negatively supercoiled simian virus 40 DNA contains Z-DNA segments within transcriptional enhancer sequences. Nature. 1983 Jun 23;303(5919):674–679. doi: 10.1038/303674a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Reddy V. B., Thimmappaya B., Dhar R., Subramanian K. N., Zain B. S., Pan J., Ghosh P. K., Celma M. L., Weissman S. M. The genome of simian virus 40. Science. 1978 May 5;200(4341):494–502. doi: 10.1126/science.205947. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Sassone-Corsi P., Wildeman A., Chambon P. A trans-acting factor is responsible for the simian virus 40 enhancer activity in vitro. Nature. 1985 Feb 7;313(6002):458–463. doi: 10.1038/313458a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Schöler H. R., Gruss P. Specific interaction between enhancer-containing molecules and cellular components. Cell. 1984 Feb;36(2):403–411. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(84)90233-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Seif I., Khoury G., Dhar R. The genome of human papovavirus BKV. Cell. 1979 Dec;18(4):963–977. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(79)90209-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Southern P. J., Berg P. Transformation of mammalian cells to antibiotic resistance with a bacterial gene under control of the SV40 early region promoter. J Mol Appl Genet. 1982;1(4):327–341. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Swimmer C., Shenk T. A viable simian virus 40 variant that carries a newly generated sequence reiteration in place of the normal duplicated enhancer element. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Nov;81(21):6652–6656. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.21.6652. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Weber F., de Villiers J., Schaffner W. An SV40 "enhancer trap" incorporates exogenous enhancers or generates enhancers from its own sequences. Cell. 1984 Apr;36(4):983–992. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(84)90048-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Weiher H., König M., Gruss P. Multiple point mutations affecting the simian virus 40 enhancer. Science. 1983 Feb 11;219(4585):626–631. doi: 10.1126/science.6297005. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Yang R. C., Wu R. BK virus DNA: complete nucleotide sequence of a human tumor virus. Science. 1979 Oct 26;206(4417):456–462. doi: 10.1126/science.228391. [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