A regulatory sequence near the 3′ end of sea urchin histone genes

Busslinger, Meinrad; Portmann, Rudolf; Birnstiel, Max L.

doi:10.1093/nar/6.9.2997

Cited by 83 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In eukaryotic genes such as the histone genes of the sea urchin that are transcribed by polymerase 11 (11,17), several conservative sequence elements are found in spacer regions adjacent to the 5' and 3' boundaries of the structural genes (8,18); these elements have been proposed ,s regulatory sequences involved in controlling the initiation and termination of transcription (8,14,18). Deletion of these conserved sequence motifs from the H2A prelude sequences have been shown to have definite quantitative or qualitative effects on transcription but a total elimination of all H2A mRNA synthesis was not observed (6).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spacer DNA sequences upstream of the T-A-T-A-A-A-T-A sequence are essential for promotion of H2A histone gene transcription in vivo.

Grosschedl¹,

Birnstiel²

1980

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

262

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The control region of a sea urchin H2A histone gene may be functionally dissected into at least three DNA segments, which we have termed modulator, selector, and initiator elements. While the initiator and in particular the selector containing the T-A-T-A-A-A-T-A sequence are specificity elements that dictate the generation of faithful 5' ends to H2A mRNA, the modulators control the rate at which these specificity elements operate [Grosschedl, R. & Birnstiel, M. L. (1980) Proc. Nat]. Acad. Sci. USA 77, 1432USA 77, -1436. By functional tests of in vitro mutated histone DNA in the Xenopus oocyte we have now discovered that the segment E of the A+T-rich spacer DNA lying at a considerable distance upstream of the conservative In prokaryotes, the role of regulatory proteins and their interaction with specific DNA sequences in transcription is being elucidated by the process of classifying the various phenotypes produced by mutation of the regulatory sequences and the genes coding for regulator proteins. This classical genetical approach is complemented by well-defined in vitro transcriptional systems and protein-binding studies. In principle, this method can also be used for animal viruses, which readily express their genetic information in the host cell (cf. ref. 1). Study of the control of transcription of eukaryotic chromosomal genes has been facilitated by the development of surrogate genetics techniques (2, 3) in which in vitro sequence manipulation of the cloned genes is followed by functional tests of the mutants within the living cell (4-6).We previously used this approach to study the transcriptional control of a H2A histone gene of the sea urchin Psammechinus miliaris (6). Short sections [54-59 base pairs (bp)] were deleted from the H2A 5' mRNA leader coding sequence and sequences preceding it. Transcriptional changes in the expression of the modified genes injected into the nucleus of centrifuged Xenopus oocytes (cf. ref. 7) were then examined. From the various mRNA "phenotypes" produced we concluded that RNA polymerase II promoters contain both specificity and ratedetermining elements that were termed; in order of their occurrence on the DNA: modulator, selector, and initiator elements (6). One such modulator, or rate-determining element, was delineated as being coincident with the previously de- Construction of Spacer Mutant Clones. The strategy for the construction of spacer mutants was similar to that described (6). The containment conditions were P2 and EK1 according to the National Institutes of Health guidelines.Spacer deletion mutants h22AD and h22AE. Three DNA components were prepared. Component a consisted of the left-hand portion of the h22 DNA up to a Taq I site, in the case of deletion D near amino acid codon 105 of the H3 gene (9), in the case of deletion E near nucleotide position -524 in the pre-H2A spacer (see Fig. 1). These components were prepared by a partial cleavage of the 4-kilobase (kb) HindIII (9), delimited on the right by the Hpa II site at position -130 in the pre-H2A ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 (9), in the case of deletion E near nucleotide position -524 in the pre-H2A spacer (see Fig. 1).…”

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confidence: 99%

Spacer DNA sequences upstream of the T-A-T-A-A-A-T-A sequence are essential for promotion of H2A histone gene transcription in vivo.

Grosschedl¹,

Birnstiel²

1980

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

262

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“…In particular, vertebrate histone pre-mRNAs have a conspicuous, highly conserved terminal palindrome 5' to the mRNA terminal sequences, a conserved ACCA sequence in which the histone mRNAs terminate (Hentschel et al, 1980;Hentschel and Birnstiel, 1981;Maxson et al, 1983) as well as a downstream AAAAGAGCUG or related spacer transcript sequence (Turner and Woodland, 1982). In the sea urchin, the downstream conserved sequence reads CAAGAAAGA (Busslinger et al, 1979).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generation of histone mRNA 3′ ends by endonucleolytic cleavage of the pre-mRNA in a snRNP-dependent in vitro reaction.

Gick¹,

Krämer²,

Keller³

et al. 1986

The EMBO Journal

146

135

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Incubation of SP6 generated mouse histone H4 mRNA precursors in nuclear extracts of HeLa cells yields processed mRNA species which end on the 3' adenosine of the conserved terminal ACCA sequence not unlike ten different histone mRNAs isolated from sea urchin embryos which end either on the 3' C or A. In the presence of 20 mM EDTA, the cleaved off 3' spacer portions of the RNA transcripts are readily detected, hence the 3' ends of histone mRNAs arise as a consequence of endonucleolytic cleavage(s) of the precursor RNA. The in vitro cleavage reaction is specifically inhibited by human antisera of the Sm-serotype, but not by control sera and can be rescued by the addition of a preparation of partially purified small nuclear RNPs to the antibody-depleted extract. Interestingly, the snRNP preparation is sufficient to elicit 3' processing of pre-mRNA in the absence of added nuclear extract.

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“…These so-called replication histone genes code for mRNAs with short 5Ј and 3Ј untranslated regions; they lack introns and polyadenylation sequences but instead end in a 3Ј-terminal palindrome (11,34) that serves as a recognition sequence for U7 snRNP-mediated 3Ј processing of histone pre-mRNA (5). A minor group of histone genes is expressed at a basal level throughout the cell cycle in proliferating cells and at a reduced but significant rate in quiescent cells, where their proteins gradually replace the replicationdependent histones in the chromatin (73,74).…”

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The Five Cleavage-Stage (CS) Histones of the Sea Urchin Are Encoded by a Maternally Expressed Family of Replacement Histone Genes: Functional Equivalence of the CS H1 and Frog H1M (B4) Proteins

Mandl

Brandt

Superti‐Furga

et al. 1997

Molecular and Cellular Biology

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The cleavage-stage (CS) histones of the sea urchin are known to be maternally expressed in the egg, have been implicated in chromatin remodeling of the male pronucleus following fertilization, and are the only histone variants present in embryonic chromatin up to the four-cell stage. With the help of partial peptide sequence information, we have isolated and identified CS H1, H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 cDNAs from egg poly(A) ؉ mRNA of the sea urchin Psammechinus miliaris. All five CS proteins correspond to replacement histone variants which are encoded by replication-independent genes containing introns, poly(A) addition signals, and long nontranslated sequences. Transcripts of the CS histone genes could be detected only during oogenesis and in development up to the early blastula stage. The CS proteins, with the exception of H4, are unique histones which are distantly related in sequence to the early, late, and sperm histone subtypes of the sea urchin. In contrast, the CS H1 protein displays highest sequence homology with the H1M (B4) histone of Xenopus laevis. Both H1 proteins are replacement histone variants with very similar developmental expression profiles in their respective species, thus indicating that the frog H1M (B4) gene is a vertebrate homolog of the CS H1 gene. These data furthermore suggest that the CS histones are of ancient evolutionary origin and may perform similar conserved functions during oogenesis and early development in different species.Histones are basic proteins that associate with each other and nuclear DNA to form the nucleosome. This basic unit of chromatin consists of two molecules each of the core histones H2A, H2B, H3, and H4, while the H1 protein interacts both with the histone octamer and with linker DNA and is responsible for packaging nucleosomes into higher-order structures. The core histones H3 and H4 are almost invariant in evolution. The less well conserved H2A and H2B proteins often occur as different subtypes within the same organism, while the H1 protein is the most variable of all histones (reviewed in reference 66).The expression of the majority of histone genes is tightly coupled to DNA synthesis by specific transcriptional and posttranscriptional mechanisms. These so-called replication histone genes code for mRNAs with short 5Ј and 3Ј untranslated regions; they lack introns and polyadenylation sequences but instead end in a 3Ј-terminal palindrome (11, 34) that serves as a recognition sequence for U7 snRNP-mediated 3Ј processing of histone pre-mRNA (5). A minor group of histone genes is expressed at a basal level throughout the cell cycle in proliferating cells and at a reduced but significant rate in quiescent cells, where their proteins gradually replace the replicationdependent histones in the chromatin (73, 74). These so-called replacement histone genes contain introns, code for polyadenylated mRNA with long untranslated sequences, and are thus classical RNA polymerase II transcription units (9,22,68).The sea urchin genome contains four distinct histone gene familie...

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A regulatory sequence near the 3′ end of sea urchin histone genes

Cited by 83 publications

References 22 publications

Spacer DNA sequences upstream of the T-A-T-A-A-A-T-A sequence are essential for promotion of H2A histone gene transcription in vivo.

Spacer DNA sequences upstream of the T-A-T-A-A-A-T-A sequence are essential for promotion of H2A histone gene transcription in vivo.

Generation of histone mRNA 3′ ends by endonucleolytic cleavage of the pre-mRNA in a snRNP-dependent in vitro reaction.

The Five Cleavage-Stage (CS) Histones of the Sea Urchin Are Encoded by a Maternally Expressed Family of Replacement Histone Genes: Functional Equivalence of the CS H1 and Frog H1M (B4) Proteins

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