Skip to main content
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1991 Apr 11;19(7):1533–1539. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.7.1533

Analysis of the v-myb structural components important for transactivation of gene expression.

D M Bortner 1, M C Ostrowski 1
PMCID: PMC333912  PMID: 2027762

Abstract

In order to define the domains of the v-myb protein that are important for transactivation of gene expression, we have studied transactivation by the v-myb gene and a set of v-myb deletion mutants using transient transfection assays in NIH 3T3 cells. Analysis of the set of v-myb deletion products demonstrated that a previously unidentified region in the carboxyl-terminal portion of the protein is required for transactivation. This region lies between amino acids 295-356 with respect to the 5' end of the v-myb gene. Switching the v-myb DNA binding domain with the DNA binding domain of the rat glucocorticoid receptor (rGR) switched the cis-element requirement for v-myb action: only reports containing glucocorticoid response elements were activated by myb-rGR fusion proteins. The carboxyl terminal region essential for transactivation by the intact v-myb gene was also necessary for transactivation by the rGR-fusion gene. Carboxyl-terminal deletion mutations that encompassed the novel transactivation region were able to block wild-type v-myb transactivation when tested in transient co-expression assays. In an unexpected sidelight to our studies, we could demonstrate that the lacZ gene present in the prokaryotic vector sequences contained a DNA element that fortuitously can act as a v-myb-dependent enhancer element, and that v-myb protein can bind to this element in vitro. The lacZ enhancer contains the myb consensus DNA binding site YAAC(G/T)G.

Full text

PDF
1533

Images in this article

Selected References

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

  1. Anfossi G., Gewirtz A. M., Calabretta B. An oligomer complementary to c-myb-encoded mRNA inhibits proliferation of human myeloid leukemia cell lines. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 May;86(9):3379–3383. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.9.3379. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Berger J., Hauber J., Hauber R., Geiger R., Cullen B. R. Secreted placental alkaline phosphatase: a powerful new quantitative indicator of gene expression in eukaryotic cells. Gene. 1988 Jun 15;66(1):1–10. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(88)90219-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Berger S. L., Cress W. D., Cress A., Triezenberg S. J., Guarente L. Selective inhibition of activated but not basal transcription by the acidic activation domain of VP16: evidence for transcriptional adaptors. Cell. 1990 Jun 29;61(7):1199–1208. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90684-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Biedenkapp H., Borgmeyer U., Sippel A. E., Klempnauer K. H. Viral myb oncogene encodes a sequence-specific DNA-binding activity. Nature. 1988 Oct 27;335(6193):835–837. doi: 10.1038/335835a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Evan G. I., Lewis G. K., Bishop J. M. Isolation of monoclonal antibodies specific for products of avian oncogene myb. Mol Cell Biol. 1984 Dec;4(12):2843–2850. doi: 10.1128/mcb.4.12.2843. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Fischer-Fantuzzi L., Vesco C. Cell-dependent efficiency of reiterated nuclear signals in a mutant simian virus 40 oncoprotein targeted to the nucleus. Mol Cell Biol. 1988 Dec;8(12):5495–5503. doi: 10.1128/mcb.8.12.5495. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gewirtz A. M., Calabretta B. A c-myb antisense oligodeoxynucleotide inhibits normal human hematopoiesis in vitro. Science. 1988 Dec 2;242(4883):1303–1306. doi: 10.1126/science.2461588. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Gonda T. J., Sheiness D. K., Bishop J. M. Transcripts from the cellular homologs of retroviral oncogenes: distribution among chicken tissues. Mol Cell Biol. 1982 Jun;2(6):617–624. doi: 10.1128/mcb.2.6.617. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Howe K. M., Reakes C. F., Watson R. J. Characterization of the sequence-specific interaction of mouse c-myb protein with DNA. EMBO J. 1990 Jan;9(1):161–169. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1990.tb08092.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Ibanez C. E., Lipsick J. S. Structural and functional domains of the myb oncogene: requirements for nuclear transport, myeloid transformation, and colony formation. J Virol. 1988 Jun;62(6):1981–1988. doi: 10.1128/jvi.62.6.1981-1988.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Ibanez C. E., Lipsick J. S. trans activation of gene expression by v-myb. Mol Cell Biol. 1990 May;10(5):2285–2293. doi: 10.1128/mcb.10.5.2285. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Kelleher R. J., 3rd, Flanagan P. M., Kornberg R. D. A novel mediator between activator proteins and the RNA polymerase II transcription apparatus. Cell. 1990 Jun 29;61(7):1209–1215. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90685-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Klempnauer K. H., Arnold H., Biedenkapp H. Activation of transcription by v-myb: evidence for two different mechanisms. Genes Dev. 1989 Oct;3(10):1582–1589. doi: 10.1101/gad.3.10.1582. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Klempnauer K. H., Gonda T. J., Bishop J. M. Nucleotide sequence of the retroviral leukemia gene v-myb and its cellular progenitor c-myb: the architecture of a transduced oncogene. Cell. 1982 Dec;31(2 Pt 1):453–463. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(82)90138-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Klempnauer K. H., Ramsay G., Bishop J. M., Moscovici M. G., Moscovici C., McGrath J. P., Levinson A. D. The product of the retroviral transforming gene v-myb is a truncated version of the protein encoded by the cellular oncogene c-myb. Cell. 1983 Jun;33(2):345–355. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90416-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Klempnauer K. H., Sippel A. E. The highly conserved amino-terminal region of the protein encoded by the v-myb oncogene functions as a DNA-binding domain. EMBO J. 1987 Sep;6(9):2719–2725. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02565.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Landschulz W. H., Johnson P. F., McKnight S. L. The leucine zipper: a hypothetical structure common to a new class of DNA binding proteins. Science. 1988 Jun 24;240(4860):1759–1764. doi: 10.1126/science.3289117. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Lüscher B., Christenson E., Litchfield D. W., Krebs E. G., Eisenman R. N. Myb DNA binding inhibited by phosphorylation at a site deleted during oncogenic activation. Nature. 1990 Apr 5;344(6266):517–522. doi: 10.1038/344517a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. McKnight S. L., Gavis E. R., Kingsbury R., Axel R. Analysis of transcriptional regulatory signals of the HSV thymidine kinase gene: identification of an upstream control region. Cell. 1981 Aug;25(2):385–398. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90057-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Miesfeld R., Rusconi S., Godowski P. J., Maler B. A., Okret S., Wikström A. C., Gustafsson J. A., Yamamoto K. R. Genetic complementation of a glucocorticoid receptor deficiency by expression of cloned receptor cDNA. Cell. 1986 Aug 1;46(3):389–399. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90659-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Moelling K., Pfaff E., Beug H., Beimling P., Bunte T., Schaller H. E., Graf T. DNA-binding activity is associated with purified myb proteins from AMV and E26 viruses and is temperature-sensitive for E26 ts mutants. Cell. 1985 Apr;40(4):983–990. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90358-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Ness S. A., Marknell A., Graf T. The v-myb oncogene product binds to and activates the promyelocyte-specific mim-1 gene. Cell. 1989 Dec 22;59(6):1115–1125. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90767-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Oehler T., Arnold H., Biedenkapp H., Klempnauer K. H. Characterization of the v-myb DNA binding domain. Nucleic Acids Res. 1990 Apr 11;18(7):1703–1710. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.7.1703. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Owen R. D., Bortner D. M., Ostrowski M. C. ras oncogene activation of a VL30 transcriptional element is linked to transformation. Mol Cell Biol. 1990 Jan;10(1):1–9. doi: 10.1128/mcb.10.1.1. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Pugh B. F., Tjian R. Mechanism of transcriptional activation by Sp1: evidence for coactivators. Cell. 1990 Jun 29;61(7):1187–1197. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90683-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Sakura H., Kanei-Ishii C., Nagase T., Nakagoshi H., Gonda T. J., Ishii S. Delineation of three functional domains of the transcriptional activator encoded by the c-myb protooncogene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Aug;86(15):5758–5762. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.15.5758. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Studier F. W., Rosenberg A. H., Dunn J. J., Dubendorff J. W. Use of T7 RNA polymerase to direct expression of cloned genes. Methods Enzymol. 1990;185:60–89. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(90)85008-c. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Thompson C. B., Challoner P. B., Neiman P. E., Groudine M. Expression of the c-myb proto-oncogene during cellular proliferation. 1986 Jan 30-Feb 5Nature. 319(6052):374–380. doi: 10.1038/319374a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Twigg A. J., Sherratt D. Trans-complementable copy-number mutants of plasmid ColE1. Nature. 1980 Jan 10;283(5743):216–218. doi: 10.1038/283216a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Weston K., Bishop J. M. Transcriptional activation by the v-myb oncogene and its cellular progenitor, c-myb. Cell. 1989 Jul 14;58(1):85–93. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90405-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. de Wet J. R., Wood K. V., DeLuca M., Helinski D. R., Subramani S. Firefly luciferase gene: structure and expression in mammalian cells. Mol Cell Biol. 1987 Feb;7(2):725–737. doi: 10.1128/mcb.7.2.725. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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

RESOURCES