Skip to main content
PMC home page
Molecular and Cellular Biology logoLink to Molecular and Cellular Biology
. 1991 Apr;11(4):1912–1920. doi: 10.1128/mcb.11.4.1912

Loss of the amino-terminal helix-loop-helix domain of the vav proto-oncogene activates its transforming potential.

S Katzav 1, J L Cleveland 1, H E Heslop 1, D Pulido 1
PMCID: PMC359873  PMID: 2005887

Abstract

vav, a novel human oncogene, was originally generated in vitro by replacement of its normal 5' coding sequences with sequences from pSV2neo DNA, cotransfected as a selectable marker (S. Katzav, D. Martin-Zanca, and M. Barbacid, EMBO J. 8:2283-2290, 1989). The vav proto-oncogene is normally expressed in cells of hematopoietic origin. To determine whether the 5' rearrangement of vav or its ectopic expression in NIH 3T3 cells contributes to its transforming potential, we isolated murine and human proto-vav cDNA clones as well as human genomic clones corresponding to the 5' end of the gene. Normal proto-vav was poorly transforming in NIH 3T3 cells, whereas truncation of its 5' end greatly enhanced its transforming activity. The relative failure of full-length proto-vav cDNA clones to transform NIH 3T3 cells indicates that the transforming activity of vav is not simply due to ectopic expression. Analysis of the predicted amino terminus of the vav proto-oncogene shows that it contains a helix-loop-helix domain and a leucine zipper motif similar to that of myc family proteins, though it lacks a basic region that is usually found adjacent to helix-loop-helix domains. Loss of the helix-loop-helix domain of proto-vav, either by truncation or by rearrangement with pSV2neo sequences, activates its oncogenic potential.

Full text

PDF

Images in this article

1915Image
on p.1915
1915Image
on p.1915
1918Image
on p.1918

Selected References

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

  1. Benezra R., Davis R. L., Lockshon D., Turner D. L., Weintraub H. The protein Id: a negative regulator of helix-loop-helix DNA binding proteins. Cell. 1990 Apr 6;61(1):49–59. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90214-y. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bernard O., Cory S., Gerondakis S., Webb E., Adams J. M. Sequence of the murine and human cellular myc oncogenes and two modes of myc transcription resulting from chromosome translocation in B lymphoid tumours. EMBO J. 1983;2(12):2375–2383. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1983.tb01749.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Birchmeier C., Birnbaum D., Waitches G., Fasano O., Wigler M. Characterization of an activated human ros gene. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 Sep;6(9):3109–3116. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.9.3109. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Caudy M., Vässin H., Brand M., Tuma R., Jan L. Y., Jan Y. N. daughterless, a Drosophila gene essential for both neurogenesis and sex determination, has sequence similarities to myc and the achaete-scute complex. Cell. 1988 Dec 23;55(6):1061–1067. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90250-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chen Q., Cheng J. T., Tasi L. H., Schneider N., Buchanan G., Carroll A., Crist W., Ozanne B., Siciliano M. J., Baer R. The tal gene undergoes chromosome translocation in T cell leukemia and potentially encodes a helix-loop-helix protein. EMBO J. 1990 Feb;9(2):415–424. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1990.tb08126.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. 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]
  7. Cleveland J. L., Huleihel M., Bressler P., Siebenlist U., Akiyama L., Eisenman R. N., Rapp U. R. Negative regulation of c-myc transcription involves myc family proteins. Oncogene Res. 1988;3(4):357–375. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Collum R. G., Alt F. W. Are myc proteins transcription factors? Cancer Cells. 1990 Mar;2(3):69–75. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Culp J. S., Webster L. C., Friedman D. J., Smith C. L., Huang W. J., Wu F. Y., Rosenberg M., Ricciardi R. P. The 289-amino acid E1A protein of adenovirus binds zinc in a region that is important for trans-activation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Sep;85(17):6450–6454. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.17.6450. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Davis R. L., Weintraub H., Lassar A. B. Expression of a single transfected cDNA converts fibroblasts to myoblasts. Cell. 1987 Dec 24;51(6):987–1000. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90585-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. DePinho R. A., Hatton K. S., Tesfaye A., Yancopoulos G. D., Alt F. W. The human myc gene family: structure and activity of L-myc and an L-myc pseudogene. Genes Dev. 1987 Dec;1(10):1311–1326. doi: 10.1101/gad.1.10.1311. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. DePinho R. A., Legouy E., Feldman L. B., Kohl N. E., Yancopoulos G. D., Alt F. W. Structure and expression of the murine N-myc gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Mar;83(6):1827–1831. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.6.1827. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Delli Bovi P., Curatola A. M., Kern F. G., Greco A., Ittmann M., Basilico C. An oncogene isolated by transfection of Kaposi's sarcoma DNA encodes a growth factor that is a member of the FGF family. Cell. 1987 Aug 28;50(5):729–737. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90331-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Dynan W. S., Tjian R. The promoter-specific transcription factor Sp1 binds to upstream sequences in the SV40 early promoter. Cell. 1983 Nov;35(1):79–87. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90210-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Edmondson D. G., Olson E. N. A gene with homology to the myc similarity region of MyoD1 is expressed during myogenesis and is sufficient to activate the muscle differentiation program. Genes Dev. 1989 May;3(5):628–640. doi: 10.1101/gad.3.5.628. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Ellis H. M., Spann D. R., Posakony J. W. extramacrochaetae, a negative regulator of sensory organ development in Drosophila, defines a new class of helix-loop-helix proteins. Cell. 1990 Apr 6;61(1):27–38. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90212-w. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Eva A., Aaronson S. A. Isolation of a new human oncogene from a diffuse B-cell lymphoma. Nature. 1985 Jul 18;316(6025):273–275. doi: 10.1038/316273a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Fasano O., Birnbaum D., Edlund L., Fogh J., Wigler M. New human transforming genes detected by a tumorigenicity assay. Mol Cell Biol. 1984 Sep;4(9):1695–1705. doi: 10.1128/mcb.4.9.1695. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Garrell J., Modolell J. The Drosophila extramacrochaetae locus, an antagonist of proneural genes that, like these genes, encodes a helix-loop-helix protein. Cell. 1990 Apr 6;61(1):39–48. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90213-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Graham F. L., van der Eb A. J. A new technique for the assay of infectivity of human adenovirus 5 DNA. Virology. 1973 Apr;52(2):456–467. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(73)90341-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. 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]
  22. Ishikawa F., Takaku F., Hayashi K., Nagao M., Sugimura T. Activation of rat c-raf during transfection of hepatocellular carcinoma DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 May;83(10):3209–3212. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.10.3209. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Janssen J. W., Steenvoorden A. C., Schmidtberger M., Bartram C. R. Activation of the mas oncogene during transfection of monoblastic cell line DNA. Leukemia. 1988 May;2(5):318–320. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Johnson P. F., McKnight S. L. Eukaryotic transcriptional regulatory proteins. Annu Rev Biochem. 1989;58:799–839. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.58.070189.004055. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Johnston M. Genetic evidence that zinc is an essential co-factor in the DNA binding domain of GAL4 protein. Nature. 1987 Jul 23;328(6128):353–355. doi: 10.1038/328353a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Katzav S., Martin-Zanca D., Barbacid M. vav, a novel human oncogene derived from a locus ubiquitously expressed in hematopoietic cells. EMBO J. 1989 Aug;8(8):2283–2290. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb08354.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Klämbt C., Knust E., Tietze K., Campos-Ortega J. A. Closely related transcripts encoded by the neurogenic gene complex enhancer of split of Drosophila melanogaster. EMBO J. 1989 Jan;8(1):203–210. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb03365.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Kohl N. E., Legouy E., DePinho R. A., Nisen P. D., Smith R. K., Gee C. E., Alt F. W. Human N-myc is closely related in organization and nucleotide sequence to c-myc. Nature. 1986 Jan 2;319(6048):73–77. doi: 10.1038/319073a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Kozak M. Compilation and analysis of sequences upstream from the translational start site in eukaryotic mRNAs. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Jan 25;12(2):857–872. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.2.857. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Kozma S. C., Redmond S. M., Fu X. C., Saurer S. M., Groner B., Hynes N. E. Activation of the receptor kinase domain of the trk oncogene by recombination with two different cellular sequences. EMBO J. 1988 Jan;7(1):147–154. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb02794.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Martinerie C., Cannizzaro L. A., Croce C. M., Huebner K., Katzav S., Barbacid M. The human VAV proto-oncogene maps to chromosome region 19p12----19p13.2. Hum Genet. 1990 Nov;86(1):65–68. doi: 10.1007/BF00205175. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Mellentin J. D., Murre C., Donlon T. A., McCaw P. S., Smith S. D., Carroll A. J., McDonald M. E., Baltimore D., Cleary M. L. The gene for enhancer binding proteins E12/E47 lies at the t(1;19) breakpoint in acute leukemias. Science. 1989 Oct 20;246(4928):379–382. doi: 10.1126/science.2799390. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Mellentin J. D., Smith S. D., Cleary M. L. lyl-1, a novel gene altered by chromosomal translocation in T cell leukemia, codes for a protein with a helix-loop-helix DNA binding motif. Cell. 1989 Jul 14;58(1):77–83. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90404-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Morishita K., Parker D. S., Mucenski M. L., Jenkins N. A., Copeland N. G., Ihle J. N. Retroviral activation of a novel gene encoding a zinc finger protein in IL-3-dependent myeloid leukemia cell lines. Cell. 1988 Sep 9;54(6):831–840. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(88)91175-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  35. Murre C., McCaw P. S., Baltimore D. A new DNA binding and dimerization motif in immunoglobulin enhancer binding, daughterless, MyoD, and myc proteins. Cell. 1989 Mar 10;56(5):777–783. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90682-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  36. Murre C., McCaw P. S., Vaessin H., Caudy M., Jan L. Y., Jan Y. N., Cabrera C. V., Buskin J. N., Hauschka S. D., Lassar A. B. Interactions between heterologous helix-loop-helix proteins generate complexes that bind specifically to a common DNA sequence. Cell. 1989 Aug 11;58(3):537–544. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90434-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  37. Noguchi T., Galland F., Batoz M., Mattei M. G., Birnbaum D. Activation of a mcf.2 oncogene by deletion of amino-terminal coding sequences. Oncogene. 1988 Dec;3(6):709–715. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  38. Penn L. J., Brooks M. W., Laufer E. M., Land H. Negative autoregulation of c-myc transcription. EMBO J. 1990 Apr;9(4):1113–1121. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1990.tb08217.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  39. Pulciani S., Santos E., Long L. K., Sorrentino V., Barbacid M. ras gene Amplification and malignant transformation. Mol Cell Biol. 1985 Oct;5(10):2836–2841. doi: 10.1128/mcb.5.10.2836. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  40. Rushlow C. A., Hogan A., Pinchin S. M., Howe K. M., Lardelli M., Ish-Horowicz D. The Drosophila hairy protein acts in both segmentation and bristle patterning and shows homology to N-myc. EMBO J. 1989 Oct;8(10):3095–3103. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb08461.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  41. 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]
  42. Shtivelman E., Lifshitz B., Gale R. P., Canaani E. Fused transcript of abl and bcr genes in chronic myelogenous leukaemia. Nature. 1985 Jun 13;315(6020):550–554. doi: 10.1038/315550a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  43. Stone J., de Lange T., Ramsay G., Jakobovits E., Bishop J. M., Varmus H., Lee W. Definition of regions in human c-myc that are involved in transformation and nuclear localization. Mol Cell Biol. 1987 May;7(5):1697–1709. doi: 10.1128/mcb.7.5.1697. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  44. Sugiyama A., Kume A., Nemoto K., Lee S. Y., Asami Y., Nemoto F., Nishimura S., Kuchino Y. Isolation and characterization of s-myc, a member of the rat myc gene family. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Dec;86(23):9144–9148. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.23.9144. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  45. Takahashi M., Ritz J., Cooper G. M. Activation of a novel human transforming gene, ret, by DNA rearrangement. Cell. 1985 Sep;42(2):581–588. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90115-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  46. Thisse B., Stoetzel C., Gorostiza-Thisse C., Perrin-Schmitt F. Sequence of the twist gene and nuclear localization of its protein in endomesodermal cells of early Drosophila embryos. EMBO J. 1988 Jul;7(7):2175–2183. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb03056.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  47. Villares R., Cabrera C. V. The achaete-scute gene complex of D. melanogaster: conserved domains in a subset of genes required for neurogenesis and their homology to myc. Cell. 1987 Jul 31;50(3):415–424. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90495-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  48. Weinberger C., Hollenberg S. M., Rosenfeld M. G., Evans R. M. Domain structure of human glucocorticoid receptor and its relationship to the v-erb-A oncogene product. Nature. 1985 Dec 19;318(6047):670–672. doi: 10.1038/318670a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  49. Young D., Waitches G., Birchmeier C., Fasano O., Wigler M. Isolation and characterization of a new cellular oncogene encoding a protein with multiple potential transmembrane domains. Cell. 1986 Jun 6;45(5):711–719. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90785-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  50. Zhan X., Bates B., Hu X. G., Goldfarb M. The human FGF-5 oncogene encodes a novel protein related to fibroblast growth factors. Mol Cell Biol. 1988 Aug;8(8):3487–3495. doi: 10.1128/mcb.8.8.3487. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Molecular and Cellular Biology are provided here courtesy of Taylor & Francis

RESOURCES