Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1993 Jan 15;90(2):517–521. doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.2.517

Identification of an RNA binding site for human thymidylate synthase.

E Chu 1, D Voeller 1, D M Koeller 1, J C Drake 1, C H Takimoto 1, G F Maley 1, F Maley 1, C J Allegra 1
PMCID: PMC45694  PMID: 8421684

Abstract

Previous studies from this laboratory have shown that human TS mRNA translation is regulated by its protein product in a negative autoregulatory manner. In this paper, we identify an RNA binding site for TS protein located within the first 188 nt of TS RNA. A 36-nt RNA sequence contained within this 188-nt fragment, corresponding to nt 75-110 and including the translational initiation site, binds TS protein with an affinity similar to that of both the full-length and the 188-nt TS RNA sequences. Variant RNAs with either a deletion or a mutation at the translational initiation region are unable to compete for TS protein binding. UV crosslinking studies reveal that an RNA fragment of approximately 36 nt is protected from RNase T1 digestion by TS protein binding. A second TS protein-binding site is localized within the protein-coding region corresponding to nt 434-634. These findings demonstrate a specific interaction between human TS protein and its TS RNA and identify an RNA binding site that includes the translational initiation site.

Full text

PDF
517

Images in this article

518Image
on p.518
519Image
on p.519
520Image
on p.520
520Image
on p.520

Selected References

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

  1. Ayusawa D., Shimizu K., Koyama H., Kaneda S., Takeishi K., Seno T. Cell-cycle-directed regulation of thymidylate synthase messenger RNA in human diploid fibroblasts stimulated to proliferate. J Mol Biol. 1986 Aug 20;190(4):559–567. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(86)90241-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Belfort M., Maley G., Pedersen-Lane J., Maley F. Primary structure of the Escherichia coli thyA gene and its thymidylate synthase product. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Aug;80(16):4914–4918. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.16.4914. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bernardi A., Spahr P. F. Nucleotide sequence at the binding site for coat protein on RNA of bacteriophage R17. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1972 Oct;69(10):3033–3037. doi: 10.1073/pnas.69.10.3033. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Carey J., Cameron V., de Haseth P. L., Uhlenbeck O. C. Sequence-specific interaction of R17 coat protein with its ribonucleic acid binding site. Biochemistry. 1983 May 24;22(11):2601–2610. doi: 10.1021/bi00280a002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Carey J., Uhlenbeck O. C. Kinetic and thermodynamic characterization of the R17 coat protein-ribonucleic acid interaction. Biochemistry. 1983 May 24;22(11):2610–2615. doi: 10.1021/bi00280a003. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Chu E., Drake J. C., Koeller D. M., Zinn S., Jamis-Dow C. A., Yeh G. C., Allegra C. J. Induction of thymidylate synthase associated with multidrug resistance in human breast and colon cancer cell lines. Mol Pharmacol. 1991 Feb;39(2):136–143. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Chu E., Koeller D. M., Casey J. L., Drake J. C., Chabner B. A., Elwood P. C., Zinn S., Allegra C. J. Autoregulation of human thymidylate synthase messenger RNA translation by thymidylate synthase. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Oct 15;88(20):8977–8981. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.20.8977. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Davisson V. J., Sirawaraporn W., Santi D. V. Expression of human thymidylate synthase in Escherichia coli. J Biol Chem. 1989 Jun 5;264(16):9145–9148. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. DeWille J. W., Jenh C. H., Deng T., Harendza C. J., Johnson L. F. Construction and expression of mouse thymidylate synthase minigenes. J Biol Chem. 1988 Jan 5;263(1):84–91. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Devereux J., Haeberli P., Smithies O. A comprehensive set of sequence analysis programs for the VAX. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Jan 11;12(1 Pt 1):387–395. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.1part1.387. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Haile D. J., Hentze M. W., Rouault T. A., Harford J. B., Klausner R. D. Regulation of interaction of the iron-responsive element binding protein with iron-responsive RNA elements. Mol Cell Biol. 1989 Nov;9(11):5055–5061. doi: 10.1128/mcb.9.11.5055. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Hardy L. W., Finer-Moore J. S., Montfort W. R., Jones M. O., Santi D. V., Stroud R. M. Atomic structure of thymidylate synthase: target for rational drug design. Science. 1987 Jan 23;235(4787):448–455. doi: 10.1126/science.3099389. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Hentze M. W., Caughman S. W., Rouault T. A., Barriocanal J. G., Dancis A., Harford J. B., Klausner R. D. Identification of the iron-responsive element for the translational regulation of human ferritin mRNA. Science. 1987 Dec 11;238(4833):1570–1573. doi: 10.1126/science.3685996. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Imam A. M., Crossley P. H., Jackman A. L., Little P. F. Analysis of thymidylate synthase gene amplification and of mRNA levels in the cell cycle. J Biol Chem. 1987 May 25;262(15):7368–7373. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Jenh C. H., Geyer P. K., Johnson L. F. Control of thymidylate synthase mRNA content and gene transcription in an overproducing mouse cell line. Mol Cell Biol. 1985 Oct;5(10):2527–2532. doi: 10.1128/mcb.5.10.2527. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Jenh C. H., Rao L. G., Johnson L. F. Regulation of thymidylate synthase enzyme synthesis in 5-fluorodeoxyuridine-resistant mouse fibroblasts during the transition from the resting to growing state. J Cell Physiol. 1985 Jan;122(1):149–154. doi: 10.1002/jcp.1041220122. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Jolliff K., Li Y., Johnson L. F. Multiple protein-DNA interactions in the TATAA-less mouse thymidylate synthase promoter. Nucleic Acids Res. 1991 May 11;19(9):2267–2274. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.9.2267. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Kaneda S., Nalbantoglu J., Takeishi K., Shimizu K., Gotoh O., Seno T., Ayusawa D. Structural and functional analysis of the human thymidylate synthase gene. J Biol Chem. 1990 Nov 25;265(33):20277–20284. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Klausner R. D., Harford J. B. cis-trans models for post-transcriptional gene regulation. Science. 1989 Nov 17;246(4932):870–872. doi: 10.1126/science.2683086. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Krug M., de Haseth P. L., Uhlenbeck O. C. Enzymatic synthesis of a 21-nucleotide coat protein binding fragment of R17 ribonucleic acid. Biochemistry. 1982 Sep 14;21(19):4713–4720. doi: 10.1021/bi00262a030. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Leibold E. A., Munro H. N. Cytoplasmic protein binds in vitro to a highly conserved sequence in the 5' untranslated region of ferritin heavy- and light-subunit mRNAs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Apr;85(7):2171–2175. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.7.2171. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Lu Y. Z., Aiello P. D., Matthews R. G. Studies on the polyglutamate specificity of thymidylate synthase from fetal pig liver. Biochemistry. 1984 Dec 18;23(26):6870–6876. doi: 10.1021/bi00321a091. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Milligan J. F., Groebe D. R., Witherell G. W., Uhlenbeck O. C. Oligoribonucleotide synthesis using T7 RNA polymerase and synthetic DNA templates. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Nov 11;15(21):8783–8798. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.21.8783. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Navalgund L. G., Rossana C., Muench A. J., Johnson L. F. Cell cycle regulation of thymidylate synthetase gene expression in cultured mouse fibroblasts. J Biol Chem. 1980 Aug 10;255(15):7386–7390. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Romaniuk P. J., Lowary P., Wu H. N., Stormo G., Uhlenbeck O. C. RNA binding site of R17 coat protein. Biochemistry. 1987 Mar 24;26(6):1563–1568. doi: 10.1021/bi00380a011. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Saiki R. K., Gelfand D. H., Stoffel S., Scharf S. J., Higuchi R., Horn G. T., Mullis K. B., Erlich H. A. Primer-directed enzymatic amplification of DNA with a thermostable DNA polymerase. Science. 1988 Jan 29;239(4839):487–491. doi: 10.1126/science.2448875. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Takeishi K., Kaneda S., Ayusawa D., Shimizu K., Gotoh O., Seno T. Nucleotide sequence of a functional cDNA for human thymidylate synthase. Nucleic Acids Res. 1985 Mar 25;13(6):2035–2043. doi: 10.1093/nar/13.6.2035. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Theil E. C. Regulation of ferritin and transferrin receptor mRNAs. J Biol Chem. 1990 Mar 25;265(9):4771–4774. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Zuker M., Stiegler P. Optimal computer folding of large RNA sequences using thermodynamics and auxiliary information. Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Jan 10;9(1):133–148. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.1.133. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES