Skip to main content
PMC home page
The EMBO Journal logoLink to The EMBO Journal
. 1988 Aug;7(8):2485–2493. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb03095.x

A variant nuclear protein in dedifferentiated hepatoma cells binds to the same functional sequences in the beta fibrinogen gene promoter as HNF-1.

S Baumhueter 1, G Courtois 1, G R Crabtree 1
PMCID: PMC457118  PMID: 2847919

Abstract

Normal liver and differentiated hepatoma cell lines contain a nuclear factor, HNF-1, which binds functional sequences within the promoters of the alpha and beta chains of fibrinogen and alpha 1-antitrypsin. In UV cross-linking studies we find that HNF-1 has an apparent mol. wt of 92 kd in differentiated hepatocytes. Nuclear extracts from a dedifferentiated hepatoma cell line, Fao flC2 (C2), selected on the basis of morphological and biochemical dedifferentiation from Fao contains a protein, vHNF, which binds to the same DNA sequence motif as HNF-1 but has an apparent mol. wt of 72 rather than 92 kd. Mixing experiments indicate that this variant nuclear factor does not arise from HNF-1 by proteolysis. Reversion to the differentiated phenotype in C2-Rev7 (Rev7), selected by growth in glucose-free media, results in the re-expression of many liver-specific functions including the fibrinogen genes. In Rev7, HNF-1 is indistinguishable from that in the original differentiated cell line Fao. Transfection studies and nuclear run-on experiments indicate that reduced expression of fibrinogen RNA in C2 relative to Fao is related to reduced transcription. vHNF but not HNF-1 is present in somatic hybrids between fibroblasts and liver cells which show extinction of liver specific traits and it can also be detected in normal tissue, predominantly in lung nuclear extracts. Since vHNF and HNF-1 are not co-expressed yet correlate with the non-hepatic and hepatic phenotype, respectively, we suggest that the expression of these variant forms reflects determination events in establishing the hepatic phenotype.

Full text

PDF
2485

Images in this article

2486Image
on p.2486
2487Image
on p.2487
2488Image
on p.2488
2489Image
on p.2489
2491Image
on p.2491

Selected References

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

  1. Bagchi M. K., Tsai S. Y., Tsai M. J., O'Malley B. W. Purification and characterization of chicken ovalbumin gene upstream promoter transcription factor from homologous oviduct cells. Mol Cell Biol. 1987 Dec;7(12):4151–4158. doi: 10.1128/mcb.7.12.4151. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bertolotti R. A selective system for hepatoma cells producing gluconeogenic enzymes. Somatic Cell Genet. 1977 Jul;3(4):365–380. doi: 10.1007/BF01542966. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bertolotti R. Expression of differentiated functions in hepatoma cell hybrids: selection in glucose-free media of segregated hybrid cells which reexpress gluconeogenic enzymes. Somatic Cell Genet. 1977 Nov;3(6):579–602. doi: 10.1007/BF01539067. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bodner M., Karin M. A pituitary-specific trans-acting factor can stimulate transcription from the growth hormone promoter in extracts of nonexpressing cells. Cell. 1987 Jul 17;50(2):267–275. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90222-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Cereghini S., Raymondjean M., Carranca A. G., Herbomel P., Yaniv M. Factors involved in control of tissue-specific expression of albumin gene. Cell. 1987 Aug 14;50(4):627–638. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90036-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Chin A. C., Fournier R. E. A genetic analysis of extinction: trans-regulation of 16 liver-specific genes in hepatoma-fibroblast hybrid cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Mar;84(6):1614–1618. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.6.1614. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. 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]
  8. Chodosh L. A., Carthew R. W., Sharp P. A. A single polypeptide possesses the binding and transcription activities of the adenovirus major late transcription factor. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 Dec;6(12):4723–4733. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.12.4723. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Clayton D. F., Weiss M., Darnell J. E., Jr Liver-specific RNA metabolism in hepatoma cells: variations in transcription rates and mRNA levels. Mol Cell Biol. 1985 Oct;5(10):2633–2641. doi: 10.1128/mcb.5.10.2633. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Courtois G., Morgan J. G., Campbell L. A., Fourel G., Crabtree G. R. Interaction of a liver-specific nuclear factor with the fibrinogen and alpha 1-antitrypsin promoters. Science. 1987 Oct 30;238(4827):688–692. doi: 10.1126/science.3499668. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Crabtree G. R., Kant J. A. Molecular cloning of cDNA for the alpha, beta, and gamma chains of rat fibrinogen. A family of coordinately regulated genes. J Biol Chem. 1981 Sep 25;256(18):9718–9723. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Deschatrette J., Moore E. E., Dubois M., Cassio D., Weiss M. C. Dedifferentiated variants of a rat hepatoma: analysis by cell hybridization. Somatic Cell Genet. 1979 Nov;5(6):697–718. doi: 10.1007/BF01542636. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Deschatrette J., Moore E. E., Dubois M., Weiss M. C. Dedifferentiated variants of a rat hepatoma:reversion analysis. Cell. 1980 Apr;19(4):1043–1051. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(80)90095-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Dynan W. S., Tjian R. Control of eukaryotic messenger RNA synthesis by sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins. 1985 Aug 29-Sep 4Nature. 316(6031):774–778. doi: 10.1038/316774a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Evans E., Courtois G. M., Kilian P. L., Fuller G. M., Crabtree G. R. Induction of fibrinogen and a subset of acute phase response genes involves a novel monokine which is mimicked by phorbol esters. J Biol Chem. 1987 Aug 5;262(22):10850–10854. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Fowlkes D. M., Mullis N. T., Comeau C. M., Crabtree G. R. Potential basis for regulation of the coordinately expressed fibrinogen genes: homology in the 5' flanking regions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Apr;81(8):2313–2316. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.8.2313. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Fried M., Crothers D. M. Equilibria and kinetics of lac repressor-operator interactions by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Dec 11;9(23):6505–6525. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.23.6505. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Friedman J. M., Babiss L. E., Weiss M., Darnell J. E., Jr Hepatoma variants (C2) are defective for transcriptional and post-transcriptional actions from both endogenous and viral genomes. EMBO J. 1987 Jun;6(6):1727–1731. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02424.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Galas D. J., Schmitz A. DNAse footprinting: a simple method for the detection of protein-DNA binding specificity. Nucleic Acids Res. 1978 Sep;5(9):3157–3170. doi: 10.1093/nar/5.9.3157. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Jones K. A., Kadonaga J. T., Rosenfeld P. J., Kelly T. J., Tjian R. A cellular DNA-binding protein that activates eukaryotic transcription and DNA replication. Cell. 1987 Jan 16;48(1):79–89. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90358-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Killary A. M., Fournier R. E. A genetic analysis of extinction: trans-dominant loci regulate expression of liver-specific traits in hepatoma hybrid cells. Cell. 1984 Sep;38(2):523–534. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(84)90507-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Krieg P. A., Melton D. A. Functional messenger RNAs are produced by SP6 in vitro transcription of cloned cDNAs. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Sep 25;12(18):7057–7070. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.18.7057. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Laemmli U. K. Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature. 1970 Aug 15;227(5259):680–685. doi: 10.1038/227680a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Lambert P. F., Spalholz B. A., Howley P. M. A transcriptional repressor encoded by BPV-1 shares a common carboxy-terminal domain with the E2 transactivator. Cell. 1987 Jul 3;50(1):69–78. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90663-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Maniatis T., Goodbourn S., Fischer J. A. Regulation of inducible and tissue-specific gene expression. Science. 1987 Jun 5;236(4806):1237–1245. doi: 10.1126/science.3296191. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. McKnight S. L., Gavis E. R., Kingsbury R., Axel R. Analysis of transcriptional regulatory signals of the HSV thymidine kinase gene: identification of an upstream control region. Cell. 1981 Aug;25(2):385–398. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90057-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. 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]
  28. Ogata R., Gilbert W. Contacts between the lac repressor and the thymines in the lac operator. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Nov;74(11):4973–4976. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.11.4973. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Ohlsson H., Edlund T. Sequence-specific interactions of nuclear factors with the insulin gene enhancer. Cell. 1986 Apr 11;45(1):35–44. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90535-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Ott M. O., Sperling L., Herbomel P., Yaniv M., Weiss M. C. Tissue-specific expression is conferred by a sequence from the 5' end of the rat albumin gene. EMBO J. 1984 Nov;3(11):2505–2510. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1984.tb02164.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. 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]
  32. Siebenlist U., Gilbert W. Contacts between Escherichia coli RNA polymerase and an early promoter of phage T7. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Jan;77(1):122–126. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.1.122. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. 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]

Articles from The EMBO Journal are provided here courtesy of Nature Publishing Group

RESOURCES