Skip to main content
PMC home page
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1991 Jul 11;19(13):3553–3559. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.13.3553

Two members of an HNF1 homeoprotein family are expressed in human liver.

I Bach 1, M G Mattei 1, S Cereghini 1, M Yaniv 1
PMCID: PMC328379  PMID: 1677179

Abstract

HNF1 is a transcriptional activator, required for the liver-specific expression of a variety of genes, that binds to DNA as a dimer via the most diverged homeodomain known so far. We were interested to examine whether HNF1 is a unique homeoprotein example or whether it is the prototype of a new subfamily of homeodomain containing proteins. In this work we describe the isolation of a cDNA clone from a human liver library encoding a protein, highly homologous to HNF1 in three regions, including the homeo- and dimerization domains. We show that this protein can heterodimerize with human HNF1 in vitro. Sequence comparison of our clone with a rat variant HNF1 (vHNF1) clone, isolated in parallel in our laboratory from the dedifferentiated H5 hepatoma cell line, identified our cDNA as human vHNF1. vHNF1 is a nuclear protein recognizing the same binding site as HNF1 and previously thought to occur only in dedifferentiated hepatoma cells that fail to express most liver specific genes. Nevertheless, we show by Northern blot analysis that vHNF1 transcripts are present in differentiated human HepG2 hepatoma cells as well as in rat liver and that this transcript level is 10-20 fold lower than that of HNF1. We assigned the vHNF-1 gene to human chromosome 17 and murine chromosome 11. These chromosomal localizations differ from that of the HNF-1 gene indicating that both genes are not clustered on the genome.

Full text

PDF
3553

Images in this article

3557Image
on p.3557
3557Image
on p.3557
3558Image
on p.3558
3558Image
on p.3558

Selected References

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

  1. Abbott C., Piaggio G., Ammendola R., Solomon E., Povey S., Gounari F., De Simone V., Cortese R. Mapping of the gene TCF2 coding for the transcription factor LFB3 to human chromosome 17 by polymerase chain reaction. Genomics. 1990 Sep;8(1):165–167. doi: 10.1016/0888-7543(90)90239-q. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bach I., Galcheva-Gargova Z., Mattei M. G., Simon-Chazottes D., Guénet J. L., Cereghini S., Yaniv M. Cloning of human hepatic nuclear factor 1 (HNF1) and chromosomal localization of its gene in man and mouse. Genomics. 1990 Sep;8(1):155–164. doi: 10.1016/0888-7543(90)90238-p. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Baumhueter S., Courtois G., Crabtree G. R. A variant nuclear protein in dedifferentiated hepatoma cells binds to the same functional sequences in the beta fibrinogen gene promoter as HNF-1. EMBO J. 1988 Aug;7(8):2485–2493. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb03095.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Baumhueter S., Mendel D. B., Conley P. B., Kuo C. J., Turk C., Graves M. K., Edwards C. A., Courtois G., Crabtree G. R. HNF-1 shares three sequence motifs with the POU domain proteins and is identical to LF-B1 and APF. Genes Dev. 1990 Mar;4(3):372–379. doi: 10.1101/gad.4.3.372. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Beato M. Gene regulation by steroid hormones. Cell. 1989 Feb 10;56(3):335–344. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90237-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Cereghini S., Blumenfeld M., Yaniv M. A liver-specific factor essential for albumin transcription differs between differentiated and dedifferentiated rat hepatoma cells. Genes Dev. 1988 Aug;2(8):957–974. doi: 10.1101/gad.2.8.957. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Cereghini S., Yaniv M., Cortese R. Hepatocyte dedifferentiation and extinction is accompanied by a block in the synthesis of mRNA coding for the transcription factor HNF1/LFB1. EMBO J. 1990 Jul;9(7):2257–2263. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1990.tb07396.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Chomczynski P., Sacchi N. Single-step method of RNA isolation by acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction. Anal Biochem. 1987 Apr;162(1):156–159. doi: 10.1006/abio.1987.9999. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Chouard T., Blumenfeld M., Bach I., Vandekerckhove J., Cereghini S., Yaniv M. A distal dimerization domain is essential for DNA-binding by the atypical HNF1 homeodomain. Nucleic Acids Res. 1990 Oct 11;18(19):5853–5863. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.19.5853. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Courtois G., Baumhueter S., Crabtree G. R. Purified hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 interacts with a family of hepatocyte-specific promoters. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Nov;85(21):7937–7941. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.21.7937. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Deschatrette J., Weiss M. C. Characterization of differentiated and dedifferentiated clones from a rat hepatoma. Biochimie. 1974;56(11-12):1603–1611. doi: 10.1016/s0300-9084(75)80286-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Dranginis A. M. Binding of yeast a1 and alpha 2 as a heterodimer to the operator DNA of a haploid-specific gene. Nature. 1990 Oct 18;347(6294):682–685. doi: 10.1038/347682a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Dressler G. R., Gruss P. Do multigene families regulate vertebrate development? Trends Genet. 1988 Aug;4(8):214–219. doi: 10.1016/s0168-9525(88)80003-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Duboule D., Dollé P. The structural and functional organization of the murine HOX gene family resembles that of Drosophila homeotic genes. EMBO J. 1989 May;8(5):1497–1505. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb03534.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Finney M. The homeodomain of the transcription factor LF-B1 has a 21 amino acid loop between helix 2 and helix 3. Cell. 1990 Jan 12;60(1):5–6. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90708-m. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Fletcher C., Heintz N., Roeder R. G. Purification and characterization of OTF-1, a transcription factor regulating cell cycle expression of a human histone H2b gene. Cell. 1987 Dec 4;51(5):773–781. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90100-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Frain M., Swart G., Monaci P., Nicosia A., Stämpfli S., Frank R., Cortese R. The liver-specific transcription factor LF-B1 contains a highly diverged homeobox DNA binding domain. Cell. 1989 Oct 6;59(1):145–157. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90877-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Goutte C., Johnson A. D. a1 protein alters the DNA binding specificity of alpha 2 repressor. Cell. 1988 Mar 25;52(6):875–882. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90429-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Green S., Chambon P. Nuclear receptors enhance our understanding of transcription regulation. Trends Genet. 1988 Nov;4(11):309–314. doi: 10.1016/0168-9525(88)90108-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Hope I. A., Struhl K. GCN4, a eukaryotic transcriptional activator protein, binds as a dimer to target DNA. EMBO J. 1987 Sep;6(9):2781–2784. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02573.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Jones N. Transcriptional regulation by dimerization: two sides to an incestuous relationship. Cell. 1990 Apr 6;61(1):9–11. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90207-u. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Kuo C. J., Conley P. B., Hsieh C. L., Francke U., Crabtree G. R. Molecular cloning, functional expression, and chromosomal localization of mouse hepatocyte nuclear factor 1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Dec;87(24):9838–9842. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.24.9838. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Lalley P. A., Davison M. T., Graves J. A., O'Brien S. J., Womack J. E., Roderick T. H., Creau-Goldberg N., Hillyard A. L., Doolittle D. P., Rogers J. A. Report of the committee on comparative mapping. Cytogenet Cell Genet. 1989;51(1-4):503–532. doi: 10.1159/000132806. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Lewis E. B. A gene complex controlling segmentation in Drosophila. Nature. 1978 Dec 7;276(5688):565–570. doi: 10.1038/276565a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Lichtsteiner S., Schibler U. A glycosylated liver-specific transcription factor stimulates transcription of the albumin gene. Cell. 1989 Jun 30;57(7):1179–1187. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90055-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Maniatis T., Goodbourn S., Fischer J. A. Regulation of inducible and tissue-specific gene expression. Science. 1987 Jun 5;236(4806):1237–1245. doi: 10.1126/science.3296191. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Müller M. M., Ruppert S., Schaffner W., Matthias P. A cloned octamer transcription factor stimulates transcription from lymphoid-specific promoters in non-B cells. Nature. 1988 Dec 8;336(6199):544–551. doi: 10.1038/336544a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Nicosia A., Monaci P., Tomei L., De Francesco R., Nuzzo M., Stunnenberg H., Cortese R. A myosin-like dimerization helix and an extra-large homeodomain are essential elements of the tripartite DNA binding structure of LFB1. Cell. 1990 Jun 29;61(7):1225–1236. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90687-a. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Rey-Campos J., Chouard T., Yaniv M., Cereghini S. vHNF1 is a homeoprotein that activates transcription and forms heterodimers with HNF1. EMBO J. 1991 Jun;10(6):1445–1457. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1991.tb07665.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Schorpp M., Kugler W., Wagner U., Ryffel G. U. Hepatocyte-specific promoter element HP1 of the Xenopus albumin gene interacts with transcriptional factors of mammalian hepatocytes. J Mol Biol. 1988 Jul 20;202(2):307–320. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(88)90460-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Schöler H. R., Hatzopoulos A. K., Balling R., Suzuki N., Gruss P. A family of octamer-specific proteins present during mouse embryogenesis: evidence for germline-specific expression of an Oct factor. EMBO J. 1989 Sep;8(9):2543–2550. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb08392.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Scott M. P., Tamkun J. W., Hartzell G. W., 3rd The structure and function of the homeodomain. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1989 Jul 28;989(1):25–48. doi: 10.1016/0304-419x(89)90033-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Shaw G., Kamen R. A conserved AU sequence from the 3' untranslated region of GM-CSF mRNA mediates selective mRNA degradation. Cell. 1986 Aug 29;46(5):659–667. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90341-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Tronche F., Rollier A., Bach I., Weiss M. C., Yaniv M. The rat albumin promoter: cooperation with upstream elements is required when binding of APF/HNF1 to the proximal element is partially impaired by mutation or bacterial methylation. Mol Cell Biol. 1989 Nov;9(11):4759–4766. doi: 10.1128/mcb.9.11.4759. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  35. Tronche F., Rollier A., Herbomel P., Bach I., Cereghini S., Weiss M., Yaniv M. Anatomy of the rat albumin promoter. Mol Biol Med. 1990 Apr;7(2):173–185. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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

RESOURCES