Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.1.21 (thymidine kinase)
 7,561 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The 5' flanking region of the mouse N-ras gene was investigated to determine the elements governing transcriptional activity of the gene. The promoter did not contain typical TATA or CCAAT boxes, and according to primer extension and RNase protection analyses, transcription started at several sites. These assays also confirmed the short nucleotide distance interposed between the N-ras transcription unit and the previously described upstream unr gene. Chromatin studies performed by digestion of nuclei with DNase I revealed the presence of four hypersensitive sites: a, b, c, and d. Deletion mutagenesis of the 5' flanking region revealed sequences responsible for both promotion and inhibition of transcription. These sequences resided within 230 bp upstream of the transcription initiation site. Hypersensitive site b colocalized with the 76-bp segment with promoter activity. The negative regulatory element at position -180 colocalized with hypersensitive site a, was active on the N-ras promoter in stable as well as transient assays, and down-regulated the heterologous herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase promoter. Footprint analysis and in vivo transfection-competition experiments indicated that a trans-acting factor is responsible for the negative effect on transcription. The interaction between the cis-acting negative regulatory element and the promoter region may play a role in the tissue- and developmental-stage-specific patterns of expression of the N-ras gene.
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PMID:Dissection of the mouse N-ras gene upstream regulatory sequences and identification of the promoter and a negative regulatory element. 199 95

The transforming activity of DNA from a newly established undifferentiated human colon carcinoma cell line (MIP-101) was tested in the NIH-3T3 transfection assay. Southern blot analysis of the transfectant DNA revealed the presence of a human N-ras oncogene. Treatment of MIP-101 cells with the maturational agent sodium butyrate induced a more normal phenotype, including diminished growth rate, elimination of anchorage independent growth, and decreased tumorigenicity (R. Niles, S. Wilhelm, P. Thomas, and N. Zamcheck (1988) J. Cancer Invest. 6, 39). Here we report that there is a significant reduction in the transforming efficiency of the DNA from butyrate-treated MIP-101 cells. A nonspecific reduction in total DNA uptake as an explanation for these findings was eliminated by showing that there was similar uptake and expression of the thymidine kinase gene from the DNA of butyrate-treated and control MIP cells. Butyrate treatment had no detectable effect on the overall structure, methylation, and level of expression of the human N-ras gene from MIP-101 cells. An NIH-3T3 transformant ability after treatment with sodium butyrate. Although butyrate suppressed several transformed properties similar to MIP-101 cells, DNA from control and treated cultures had an identical level of transforming activity. The results suggest that the environment of the MIP cells may contain additional elements not present in the NIH-3T3 transformants which are required to observe the effect of butyrate on reduction of transforming activity.
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PMID:Sodium butyrate suppresses the transforming activity of an activated N-ras oncogene in human colon carcinoma cells. 267 72