Skip to main content
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1992 Jul 25;20(14):3743–3751. doi: 10.1093/nar/20.14.3743

Two promoter elements are necessary and sufficient for expression of the sea urchin U1 snRNA gene.

B J Wendelburg 1, W F Marzluff 1
PMCID: PMC334027  PMID: 1641340

Abstract

The essential elements of the sea urchin L. variegatus U1 snRNA promoter were mapped by microinjection of a U1 maxigene into sea urchin zygotes. Two elements are required for expression: a distal sequence element (DSE) located between -318 and -300 and a proximal sequence element (PSE) centered at -55. Removal or alteration of other sequences conserved in different sea urchin snRNA U1 genes, including deletion of all sequence between -90 and -273, did not affect the expression. Sequences around the start site were not required for expression. Deletion of nucleotides between the PSE and the start site resulted in initiation inside the U1 coding region, suggesting that the PSE determines the start site of transcription. There is no obvious similarity between the sequences required for the sea urchin U1 snRNA expression and the sequences required for the expression of other sea urchin snRNAs.

Full text

PDF
3744

Images in this article

Selected References

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

  1. Ares M., Jr, Chung J. S., Giglio L., Weiner A. M. Distinct factors with Sp1 and NF-A specificities bind to adjacent functional elements of the human U2 snRNA gene enhancer. Genes Dev. 1987 Oct;1(8):808–817. doi: 10.1101/gad.1.8.808. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Ares M., Jr, Mangin M., Weiner A. M. Orientation-dependent transcriptional activator upstream of a human U2 snRNA gene. Mol Cell Biol. 1985 Jul;5(7):1560–1570. doi: 10.1128/mcb.5.7.1560. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Carbon P., Murgo S., Ebel J. P., Krol A., Tebb G., Mattaj L. W. A common octamer motif binding protein is involved in the transcription of U6 snRNA by RNA polymerase III and U2 snRNA by RNA polymerase II. Cell. 1987 Oct 9;51(1):71–79. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90011-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Ciliberto G., Palla F., Tebb G., Mattaj I. W., Philipson L. Properties of a U1 RNA enhancer-like sequence. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Mar 25;15(6):2403–2416. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.6.2403. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Colin A. M., Catlin T. L., Kidson S. H., Maxson R. Closely linked early and late histone H2B genes are differentially expressed after microinjection into sea urchin zygotes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Jan;85(2):507–510. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.2.507. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. De Lorenzi M., Rohrer U., Birnstiel M. L. Analysis of a sea urchin gene cluster coding for the small nuclear U7 RNA, a rare RNA species implicated in the 3' editing of histone precursor mRNAs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 May;83(10):3243–3247. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.10.3243. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gruber A., Soldati D., Burri M., Schümperli D. Isolation of an active gene and of two pseudogenes for mouse U7 small nuclear RNA. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1991 Jan 17;1088(1):151–154. doi: 10.1016/0167-4781(91)90167-k. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Henikoff S. Unidirectional digestion with exonuclease III creates targeted breakpoints for DNA sequencing. Gene. 1984 Jun;28(3):351–359. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(84)90153-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Howard E. F., Michael S. K., Dahlberg J. E., Lund E. Functional, developmentally expressed genes for mouse U1a and U1b snRNAs contain both conserved and non-conserved transcription signals. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Dec 22;14(24):9811–9825. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.24.9811. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Korf G. M., Botros I. W., Stumph W. E. Developmental and tissue-specific expression of U4 small nuclear RNA genes. Mol Cell Biol. 1988 Dec;8(12):5566–5569. doi: 10.1128/mcb.8.12.5566. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Kunkel G. R., Pederson T. Upstream elements required for efficient transcription of a human U6 RNA gene resemble those of U1 and U2 genes even though a different polymerase is used. Genes Dev. 1988 Feb;2(2):196–204. doi: 10.1101/gad.2.2.196. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Kunkel T. A. Rapid and efficient site-specific mutagenesis without phenotypic selection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Jan;82(2):488–492. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.2.488. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Lund E., Kahan B., Dahlberg J. E. Differential control of U1 small nuclear RNA expression during mouse development. Science. 1985 Sep 20;229(4719):1271–1274. doi: 10.1126/science.2412294. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Mangin M., Ares M., Jr, Weiner A. M. Human U2 small nuclear RNA genes contain an upstream enhancer. EMBO J. 1986 May;5(5):987–995. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04313.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. McMahon A. P., Flytzanis C. N., Hough-Evans B. R., Katula K. S., Britten R. J., Davidson E. H. Introduction of cloned DNA into sea urchin egg cytoplasm: replication and persistence during embryogenesis. Dev Biol. 1985 Apr;108(2):420–430. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(85)90045-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Nash M. A., Sakallah S., Santiago C., Yu J. C., Marzluff W. F. A developmental switch in sea urchin U1 RNA. Dev Biol. 1989 Aug;134(2):289–296. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(89)90101-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Parry H. D., Tebb G., Mattaj I. W. The Xenopus U2 gene PSE is a single, compact, element required for transcription initiation and 3' end formation. Nucleic Acids Res. 1989 May 25;17(10):3633–3644. doi: 10.1093/nar/17.10.3633. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Phillips S. C., Turner P. C. Nucleotide sequence of the mouse U7 snRNA gene. Nucleic Acids Res. 1991 Mar 25;19(6):1344–1344. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.6.1344. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Roebuck K. A., Szeto D. P., Green K. P., Fan Q. N., Stumph W. E. Octamer and SPH motifs in the U1 enhancer cooperate to activate U1 RNA gene expression. Mol Cell Biol. 1990 Jan;10(1):341–352. doi: 10.1128/mcb.10.1.341. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Santiago C., Marzluff W. F. Expression of the U1 RNA gene repeat during early sea urchin development: evidence for a switch in U1 RNA genes during development. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Apr;86(8):2572–2576. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.8.2572. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Southgate C., Busslinger M. In vivo and in vitro expression of U7 snRNA genes: cis- and trans-acting elements required for RNA polymerase II-directed transcription. EMBO J. 1989 Feb;8(2):539–549. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb03408.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Stefanovic B., Marzluff W. F. Characterization of two developmentally regulated sea urchin U2 small nuclear RNA promoters: a common required TATA sequence and independent proximal and distal elements. Mol Cell Biol. 1992 Feb;12(2):650–660. doi: 10.1128/mcb.12.2.650. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Stevenson K. A., Yu J. C., Marzluff W. F. A conserved region in the sea urchin U1 snRNA promoter interacts with a developmentally regulated factor. Nucleic Acids Res. 1992 Jan 25;20(2):351–357. doi: 10.1093/nar/20.2.351. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Strub K., Birnstiel M. L. Genetic complementation in the Xenopus oocyte: co-expression of sea urchin histone and U7 RNAs restores 3' processing of H3 pre-mRNA in the oocyte. EMBO J. 1986 Jul;5(7):1675–1682. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04411.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Suter-Crazzolara C., Keller W. Organization and transient expression of the gene for human U11 snRNA. Gene Expr. 1991 May;1(2):91–102. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Tanaka M., Grossniklaus U., Herr W., Hernandez N. Activation of the U2 snRNA promoter by the octamer motif defines a new class of RNA polymerase II enhancer elements. Genes Dev. 1988 Dec;2(12B):1764–1778. doi: 10.1101/gad.2.12b.1764. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Thomas J., Lea K., Zucker-Aprison E., Blumenthal T. The spliceosomal snRNAs of Caenorhabditis elegans. Nucleic Acids Res. 1990 May 11;18(9):2633–2642. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.9.2633. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Vankan P., Edoh D., Filipowicz W. Structure and expression of the U5 snRNA gene of Arabidopsis thaliana. Conserved upstream sequence elements in plant U-RNA genes. Nucleic Acids Res. 1988 Nov 25;16(22):10425–10440. doi: 10.1093/nar/16.22.10425. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Yu J. C., Nash M. A., Santiago C., Marzluff W. F. Structure and expression of a second sea urchin U1 RNA gene repeat. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Dec 22;14(24):9977–9988. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.24.9977. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Yu J. C., Wendelburg B., Sakallah S., Marzluff W. F. The U1 snRNA gene repeat from the sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus): the 70 kilobase tandem repeat ends directly 3' to a U1 gene. Nucleic Acids Res. 1991 Mar 11;19(5):1093–1098. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.5.1093. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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

RESOURCES