Abstract
We have studied the functional constituents of the hepatitis B virus enhancer in a number of cell lines. The sequence of this enhancer, being embedded within an open reading frame of the virus, is in part evolutionarily frozen and therefore serves as a good model to investigate the fundamental enhancer elements. The hepatitis B virus enhancer contains three functionally important DNA sequence elements, EP, E, and NF-1a, each of which is bound by a distinct protein(s). The synergistic action of these elements accounts for all of the enhancer activity in a nonliver cell line and for most, but not all, of the activity in liver-derived cell lines. Multimers of the E but not of the EP element act as an autonomous enhancer. Conversely, a single element of either the E or the NF-1a element can act only when linked to the EP element. These results suggest that EP is a crucial enhancer element that acts only in interaction with a second enhancer element with intrinsic enhancer activity. Interestingly, a highly similar enhancer structure is found in a number of distinct viruses.
Full text
PDF






Images in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Angel P., Hattori K., Smeal T., Karin M. The jun proto-oncogene is positively autoregulated by its product, Jun/AP-1. Cell. 1988 Dec 2;55(5):875–885. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90143-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ben-Levy R., Faktor O., Berger I., Shaul Y. Cellular factors that interact with the hepatitis B virus enhancer. Mol Cell Biol. 1989 Apr;9(4):1804–1809. doi: 10.1128/mcb.9.4.1804. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Derse D., Dorn P. L., Levy L., Stephens R. M., Rice N. R., Casey J. W. Characterization of equine infectious anemia virus long terminal repeat. J Virol. 1987 Mar;61(3):743–747. doi: 10.1128/jvi.61.3.743-747.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Dignam J. D., Lebovitz R. M., Roeder R. G. Accurate transcription initiation by RNA polymerase II in a soluble extract from isolated mammalian nuclei. Nucleic Acids Res. 1983 Mar 11;11(5):1475–1489. doi: 10.1093/nar/11.5.1475. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Faktor O., Budlovsky S., Ben-Levy R., Shaul Y. A single element within the hepatitis B virus enhancer binds multiple proteins and responds to multiple stimuli. J Virol. 1990 Apr;64(4):1861–1863. doi: 10.1128/jvi.64.4.1861-1863.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Fromental C., Kanno M., Nomiyama H., Chambon P. Cooperativity and hierarchical levels of functional organization in the SV40 enhancer. Cell. 1988 Sep 23;54(7):943–953. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90109-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 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]
- Herr W., Clarke J. The SV40 enhancer is composed of multiple functional elements that can compensate for one another. Cell. 1986 May 9;45(3):461–470. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90332-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Honigwachs J., Faktor O., Dikstein R., Shaul Y., Laub O. Liver-specific expression of hepatitis B virus is determined by the combined action of the core gene promoter and the enhancer. J Virol. 1989 Feb;63(2):919–924. doi: 10.1128/jvi.63.2.919-924.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Jameel S., Siddiqui A. The human hepatitis B virus enhancer requires trans-acting cellular factor(s) for activity. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 Feb;6(2):710–715. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.2.710. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 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]
- Melton D. A., Krieg P. A., Rebagliati M. R., Maniatis T., Zinn K., Green M. R. Efficient in vitro synthesis of biologically active RNA and RNA hybridization probes from plasmids containing a bacteriophage SP6 promoter. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Sep 25;12(18):7035–7056. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.18.7035. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ondek B., Gloss L., Herr W. The SV40 enhancer contains two distinct levels of organization. Nature. 1988 May 5;333(6168):40–45. doi: 10.1038/333040a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ondek B., Shepard A., Herr W. Discrete elements within the SV40 enhancer region display different cell-specific enhancer activities. EMBO J. 1987 Apr;6(4):1017–1025. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb04854.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ostapchuk P., Diffley J. F., Bruder J. T., Stillman B., Levine A. J., Hearing P. Interaction of a nuclear factor with the polyomavirus enhancer region. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Nov;83(22):8550–8554. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.22.8550. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ostapchuk P., Scheirle G., Hearing P. Binding of nuclear factor EF-C to a functional domain of the hepatitis B virus enhancer region. Mol Cell Biol. 1989 Jul;9(7):2787–2797. doi: 10.1128/mcb.9.7.2787. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Ptashne M. How eukaryotic transcriptional activators work. Nature. 1988 Oct 20;335(6192):683–689. doi: 10.1038/335683a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Schaffner G., Schirm S., Müller-Baden B., Weber F., Schaffner W. Redundancy of information in enhancers as a principle of mammalian transcription control. J Mol Biol. 1988 May 5;201(1):81–90. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(88)90440-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Shaul Y., Ben-Levy R. Multiple nuclear proteins in liver cells are bound to hepatitis B virus enhancer element and its upstream sequences. EMBO J. 1987 Jul;6(7):1913–1920. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02451.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Shaul Y., Rutter W. J., Laub O. A human hepatitis B viral enhancer element. EMBO J. 1985 Feb;4(2):427–430. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb03646.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Singh H., Sen R., Baltimore D., Sharp P. A. A nuclear factor that binds to a conserved sequence motif in transcriptional control elements of immunoglobulin genes. Nature. 1986 Jan 9;319(6049):154–158. doi: 10.1038/319154a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Tseng R. W., Fujimura F. K. Multiple domains in the polyomavirus B enhancer are required for productive infection of F9 embryonal carcinoma cells. J Virol. 1988 Aug;62(8):2890–2895. doi: 10.1128/jvi.62.8.2890-2895.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Tur-Kaspa R., Shaul Y., Moore D. D., Burk R. D., Okret S., Poellinger L., Shafritz D. A. The glucocorticoid receptor recognizes a specific nucleotide sequence in hepatitis B virus DNA causing increased activity of the HBV enhancer. Virology. 1988 Dec;167(2):630–633. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]