Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.3.1.28 (chloramphenicol acetyltransferase)
 5,100 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A major unanswered question in Kinetoplastida parasites is the mechanism of regulating gene expression. Using a transfection system, we have previously shown that the intergenic region of the alpha-tubulin gene of Leishmania enriettii contained sequences required for gene expression. The goal of the work reported here was to determine whether the Leishmania-derived sequences were providing transcriptional control signals or functioning at a post-transcriptional level, most likely in trans-splicing. The chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (cat) gene was used as the reporter gene and was stably introduced into L. enriettii as part of an extrachromosomal element by transfection. We show here that the production of cat mRNA was dramatically dependent on the presence of the intergenic region 5' to the cat gene. The intergenic region could be substituted by a smaller fragment (222 base pairs) that contained the trans-splice acceptor site and an adjacent polypyrimidine tract. This native fragment could be replaced by a synthetic polypyrimidine tract containing an AG site. The native and the synthetic fragments had unidirectional activity. No effect on transcription of the cat gene by the wild-type fragment or the synthetic polypyrimidine was detected. The results indicate that both regions contain signals that affect RNA stability, probably sequences involved in trans-splicing.
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PMID:Gene expression in Leishmania: analysis of essential 5' DNA sequences. 155 76

We have used derivatives of the recently developed stable transfection vector pALT-Neo to formally demonstrate that Leishmania enriettii contains the enzymatic machinery necessary for homologous recombination. This observation has implications for gene regulation, gene amplification, genetic diversity, and the maintenance of tandemly repeated gene families in the Leishmania genome as well as in closely related organisms, including Trypanosoma brucei. Two plasmids containing nonoverlapping deletions of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene, as well as the neomycin-resistance gene, were cotransfected into L. enriettii. Analysis of the DNA from these cells by Southern blotting and plasmid rescue revealed that a full-length or doubly deleted CAT gene could be reconstructed by homologous crossing-over and/or gene conversion between the two deletion plasmids. Additionally, parasites cotransfected with pALT-Neo and pALT-CAT-S, a plasmid containing two copies of the chimeric alpha-tubulin-CAT gene, resulted in G418-resistant parasites expressing high levels of CAT activity. The structure of the DNA within these cells, as shown by Southern blot analysis and the polymerase chain reaction, is that which would be expected from a homologous exchange event occurring between the two plasmids.
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PMID:Homologous recombination in Leishmania enriettii. 199 78

We report a transient expression transfection system in Leishmania enriettii. A hybrid gene containing an intergenic region of the alpha-tubulin cluster and the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT; EC 2.3.1.28) gene is expressed after transfection of L. enriettii with the hybrid plasmid. The expression of the CAT gene is dependent on the presence of sequences from the alpha-tubulin gene. The hybrid gene is also active in Leishmania braziliensis and Leishmania major.
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PMID:Transfection of Leishmania enriettii and expression of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene. 259 53

Asialoglycoproteins (ASG) are internalized by hepatocytes by ASG receptor (ASGR)-mediated endocytosis. We have shown previously that when a plasmid DNA, pAlb(9-12)CAT (expressing chloramphenicol acetyltransferase driven by an albumin promoter enhancer), was complexed with an ASG-polylysine conjugate and injected intravenously in rats, 80% of the DNA was internalized by the liver. In normal recipient rats, over 95% of the internalized DNA was degraded in 4 h; the plasmid was undetectable after 48 h. In contrast, when 66% hepatectomy was performed 20 min after DNA administration, the internalized DNA persisted for several weeks in cytoplasmic vesicles (Chowdhury, N. R., Wu, C. H., Wu, B. Y., Yerneni, P. C., Bommineni, V. R., and Chowdhury, J. R. (1993) J. Biol. Chem. 268, 11265-11271). Since microtubules are required for the translocation of ligand-containing endosomes to lysosomes, the site of ligand degradation, we hypothesized that persistence of the endocytosed DNA might be related to changes in microtubular structure and function. To test this hypothesis, we examined hepatocellular microtubules by immunofluorescence confocal microscopy. Liver from untreated rats or sham-operated controls showed a network of fibrillar microtubules throughout the cytoplasm. The extent of the microtubular network was substantially reduced 3-6 h after 66% hepatectomy. By 24 h, microtubules had regenerated. Intraportal infusion of cycloheximide (250 mg/kg body weight) 15 min before 66% hepatectomy, prevented microtubular disruption, indicating that protein synthesis is required for this process. Immunotransblot analysis showed that hepatic alpha-tubulin concentration remained unchanged through microtubular disassembly and subsequent reassembly, which is consistent with conservation and reutilization of tubulin released by depolymerization of microtubules.
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PMID:Depolymerization of hepatocellular microtubules after partial hepatectomy. 792 9