Skip to main content
Molecular and Cellular Biology logoLink to Molecular and Cellular Biology
. 1989 Feb;9(2):396–405. doi: 10.1128/mcb.9.2.396

Functional identification of regulatory elements within the promoter region of platelet-derived growth factor 2.

M Pech 1, C D Rao 1, K C Robbins 1, S A Aaronson 1
PMCID: PMC362614  PMID: 2651898

Abstract

Human platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) is composed of two polypeptide chains, PDGF-1 and PDGF-2, the human homolog of the v-sis oncogene. Deregulation of PDGF-2 expression can confer a growth advantage to cells possessing the cognate receptor and, thus, may contribute to the malignant phenotype. We investigated the regulation of PDGF-2 mRNA expression during megakaryocytic differentiation of K562 cells. Induction by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) led to a greater than 200-fold increase in PDGF-2 transcript levels in these cells. Induction was dependent on protein synthesis and was not enhanced by cycloheximide exposure. In our initial investigation of the PDGF-2 promoter, a minimal promoter region, which included sequences extending only 42 base pairs upstream of the TATA signal, was found to be as efficient as 4 kilobase pairs upstream of the TATA signal in driving expression of a reporter gene in uninduced K562 cells. We also functionally identified different regulatory sequence elements of the PDGF-2 promoter in TPA-induced K562 cells. One region acted as a transcriptional silencer, while another region was necessary for maximal activity of the promoter in megakaryoblasts. This region was shown to bind nuclear factors and was the target for trans-activation in normal and tumor cells. In one tumor cell line, which expressed high PDGF-2 mRNA levels, the presence of the positive regulatory region resulted in a 30-fold increase in promoter activity. However, the ability of the minimal PDGF-2 promoter to drive reporter gene expression in uninduced K562 cells and normal fibroblasts, which contained no detectable PDGF-2 transcripts, implies the existence of other negative control mechanisms beyond the regulation of promoter activity.

Full text

PDF
396

Images in this article

Selected References

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

  1. Aaronson S. A., Todaro G. J., Freeman A. E. Human sarcoma cells in culture. Identification by colony-forming ability on monolayers of normal cells. Exp Cell Res. 1970 Jul;61(1):1–5. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(70)90250-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Aaronson S. A., Todaro G. J. SV40 T antigen induction and transformation in human fibroblast cell strains. Virology. 1968 Oct;36(2):254–261. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(68)90142-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Alitalo R., Andersson L. C., Betsholtz C., Nilsson K., Westermark B., Heldin C. H., Alitalo K. Induction of platelet-derived growth factor gene expression during megakaryoblastic and monocytic differentiation of human leukemia cell lines. EMBO J. 1987 May;6(5):1213–1218. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02356.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Angel P., Imagawa M., Chiu R., Stein B., Imbra R. J., Rahmsdorf H. J., Jonat C., Herrlich P., Karin M. Phorbol ester-inducible genes contain a common cis element recognized by a TPA-modulated trans-acting factor. Cell. 1987 Jun 19;49(6):729–739. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90611-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Barrett T. B., Gajdusek C. M., Schwartz S. M., McDougall J. K., Benditt E. P. Expression of the sis gene by endothelial cells in culture and in vivo. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Nov;81(21):6772–6774. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.21.6772. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Bentley D. L., Groudine M. A block to elongation is largely responsible for decreased transcription of c-myc in differentiated HL60 cells. Nature. 1986 Jun 12;321(6071):702–706. doi: 10.1038/321702a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Bowen-Pope D. F., Ross R. Platelet-derived growth factor. II. Specific binding to cultured cells. J Biol Chem. 1982 May 10;257(9):5161–5171. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Bucher P., Trifonov E. N. Compilation and analysis of eukaryotic POL II promoter sequences. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Dec 22;14(24):10009–10026. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.24.10009. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. 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]
  10. Colamonici O. R., Trepel J. B., Vidal C. A., Neckers L. M. Phorbol ester induces c-sis gene transcription in stem cell line K-562. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 May;6(5):1847–1850. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.5.1847. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. 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]
  12. Edlund T., Walker M. D., Barr P. J., Rutter W. J. Cell-specific expression of the rat insulin gene: evidence for role of two distinct 5' flanking elements. Science. 1985 Nov 22;230(4728):912–916. doi: 10.1126/science.3904002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Eva A., Robbins K. C., Andersen P. R., Srinivasan A., Tronick S. R., Reddy E. P., Ellmore N. W., Galen A. T., Lautenberger J. A., Papas T. S. Cellular genes analogous to retroviral onc genes are transcribed in human tumour cells. Nature. 1982 Jan 14;295(5845):116–119. doi: 10.1038/295116a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Gazit A., Igarashi H., Chiu I. M., Srinivasan A., Yaniv A., Tronick S. R., Robbins K. C., Aaronson S. A. Expression of the normal human sis/PDGF-2 coding sequence induces cellular transformation. Cell. 1984 Nov;39(1):89–97. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(84)90194-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Geliebter J., Zeff R. A., Melvold R. W., Nathenson S. G. Mitotic recombination in germ cells generated two major histocompatibility complex mutant genes shown to be identical by RNA sequence analysis: Kbm9 and Kbm6. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 May;83(10):3371–3375. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.10.3371. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Gorman C. M., Moffat L. F., Howard B. H. Recombinant genomes which express chloramphenicol acetyltransferase in mammalian cells. Mol Cell Biol. 1982 Sep;2(9):1044–1051. doi: 10.1128/mcb.2.9.1044. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Goustin A. S., Betsholtz C., Pfeifer-Ohlsson S., Persson H., Rydnert J., Bywater M., Holmgren G., Heldin C. H., Westermark B., Ohlsson R. Coexpression of the sis and myc proto-oncogenes in developing human placenta suggests autocrine control of trophoblast growth. Cell. 1985 May;41(1):301–312. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90083-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Greenberg M. E., Hermanowski A. L., Ziff E. B. Effect of protein synthesis inhibitors on growth factor activation of c-fos, c-myc, and actin gene transcription. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 Apr;6(4):1050–1057. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.4.1050. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Heldin C. H., Westermark B., Wasteson A. Demonstration of an antibody against platelet-derived growth factor. Exp Cell Res. 1981 Dec;136(2):255–261. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(81)90003-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Igarashi H., Rao C. D., Siroff M., Leal F., Robbins K. C., Aaronson S. A. Detection of PDGF-2 homodimers in human tumor cells. Oncogene. 1987 Mar;1(1):79–85. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Imbra R. J., Karin M. Phorbol ester induces the transcriptional stimulatory activity of the SV40 enhancer. Nature. 1986 Oct 9;323(6088):555–558. doi: 10.1038/323555a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Kelly K., Cochran B. H., Stiles C. D., Leder P. Cell-specific regulation of the c-myc gene by lymphocyte mitogens and platelet-derived growth factor. Cell. 1983 Dec;35(3 Pt 2):603–610. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90092-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Kost T. A., Theodorakis N., Hughes S. H. The nucleotide sequence of the chick cytoplasmic beta-actin gene. Nucleic Acids Res. 1983 Dec 10;11(23):8287–8301. doi: 10.1093/nar/11.23.8287. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Lee W., Mitchell P., Tjian R. Purified transcription factor AP-1 interacts with TPA-inducible enhancer elements. Cell. 1987 Jun 19;49(6):741–752. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90612-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Leof E. B., Proper J. A., Goustin A. S., Shipley G. D., DiCorleto P. E., Moses H. L. Induction of c-sis mRNA and activity similar to platelet-derived growth factor by transforming growth factor beta: a proposed model for indirect mitogenesis involving autocrine activity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Apr;83(8):2453–2457. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.8.2453. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Lozzio C. B., Lozzio B. B. Human chronic myelogenous leukemia cell-line with positive Philadelphia chromosome. Blood. 1975 Mar;45(3):321–334. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Martinet Y., Bitterman P. B., Mornex J. F., Grotendorst G. R., Martin G. R., Crystal R. G. Activated human monocytes express the c-sis proto-oncogene and release a mediator showing PDGF-like activity. Nature. 1986 Jan 9;319(6049):158–160. doi: 10.1038/319158a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. 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]
  29. Nakamaye K. L., Eckstein F. Inhibition of restriction endonuclease Nci I cleavage by phosphorothioate groups and its application to oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Dec 22;14(24):9679–9698. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.24.9679. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Pantazis P., Sariban E., Kufe D., Antoniades H. N. Induction of c-sis gene expression and synthesis of platelet-derived growth factor in human myeloid leukemia cells during monocytic differentiation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Sep;83(17):6455–6459. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.17.6455. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Perucho M., Goldfarb M., Shimizu K., Lama C., Fogh J., Wigler M. Human-tumor-derived cell lines contain common and different transforming genes. Cell. 1981 Dec;27(3 Pt 2):467–476. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90388-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Ponte P., Ng S. Y., Engel J., Gunning P., Kedes L. Evolutionary conservation in the untranslated regions of actin mRNAs: DNA sequence of a human beta-actin cDNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Feb 10;12(3):1687–1696. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.3.1687. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Rao C. D., Igarashi H., Chiu I. M., Robbins K. C., Aaronson S. A. Structure and sequence of the human c-sis/platelet-derived growth factor 2 (SIS/PDGF2) transcriptional unit. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Apr;83(8):2392–2396. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.8.2392. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Rao C. D., Igarashi H., Pech M. W., Robbins K. C., Aaronson S. A. Oncogenic potential of the human platelet-derived growth factor transcriptional unit. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1986;51(Pt 2):959–966. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1986.051.01.109. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  35. Rao C. D., Pech M., Robbins K. C., Aaronson S. A. The 5' untranslated sequence of the c-sis/platelet-derived growth factor 2 transcript is a potent translational inhibitor. Mol Cell Biol. 1988 Jan;8(1):284–292. doi: 10.1128/mcb.8.1.284. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  36. Ross R., Raines E. W., Bowen-Pope D. F. The biology of platelet-derived growth factor. Cell. 1986 Jul 18;46(2):155–169. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90733-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  37. 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]
  38. Scheidereit C., Heguy A., Roeder R. G. Identification and purification of a human lymphoid-specific octamer-binding protein (OTF-2) that activates transcription of an immunoglobulin promoter in vitro. Cell. 1987 Dec 4;51(5):783–793. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90101-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  39. Schneider R., Gander I., Müller U., Mertz R., Winnacker E. L. A sensitive and rapid gel retention assay for nuclear factor I and other DNA-binding proteins in crude nuclear extracts. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Feb 11;14(3):1303–1317. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.3.1303. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  40. 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]
  41. Van den Ouweland A. M., Roebroek A. J., Schalken J. A., Claesen C. A., Bloemers H. P., Van de Ven W. J. Structure and nucleotide sequence of the 5' region of the human and feline c-sis proto-oncogenes. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Jan 24;14(2):765–778. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.2.765. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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

RESOURCES