Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P00492 (hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase)
 2,385 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Mutations in mammalian genomes are the result of several mutagenic processes that are intrinsic to cell metabolism. Analysis of the mutation spectrum of a chromosomal gene is a valuable tool for assessing the contribution of these mechanisms to mutagenesis in the cell. We have studied the specificity of mutations induced by various mutagens in a cDNA hprt gene integrated in a chromosome of a mouse cell line. To understand the mechanisms underlying mammalian cell mutagenesis, we compiled a list of more than 250 sequenced hprt mutations that arose spontaneously or were induced by mutagens, and compared it with the published mutation data. There are at least two distinct processes of mutagenesis in eukaryotic cells: one is mispairing, while another is errors in translesion synthesis. The alkylating agent methylnitrosourea causes G:T mispairing; consequently, most mutations it induces are G to A transitions. The second process can occur spontaneously or be caused by exposure to X-rays, Trp-P2, a tryptophan pyrolysate, or acetylaminofluorene. A variety of premutagenic lesions are produced in DNA by these mutagens, but spectra of the mutations resemble each other, especially in the high frequency of deletions at the sites of short direct repeats. The slippage--misalignment mechanism accounted well for the greater part of the observed deletions. A similar spectrum of mutations was observed in the tumor suppressor gene APC from colorectal tumors; about 40% are deletions at the sites of short repeats. These findings led us to propose that slippage--misalignment is an ubiquitous mechanism of mutagenesis and is responsible for a significant proportion of spontaneous mutations in mammalian cells.
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PMID:Slippage--misalignment: to what extent does it contribute to mammalian cell mutagenesis? 783 71

Gene amplification is widely used for the production of pharmaceuticals and therapeutics in situations where a mammalian system is essential to synthesise a fully active product. Current gene amplification systems require multiple rounds of selection, often with high concentrations of toxic chemicals, to achieve the highest levels of gene amplification. The use of these systems has not been demonstrated in specialised mammalian cells, such as embryonic-stem cells, which can be used to generate transgenic animals. Thus, it has not yet proved possible to produce transgenic animals containing amplified copies of a gene of interest, with the potential to synthesise large amounts of a valuable gene product. We have developed a new amplification system, based around vectors encoding a partially disabled hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) minigene, which can achieve greater than 1000-fold amplification of HPRT and the human growth hormone gene in a single step in Chinese hamster-lung cells. The amplification system also works in mouse embryonic-stem cells and we have used it to produce mice which express 30-fold higher levels of human protein C in milk than obtained with conventional transgenesis using the same protein C construct. This system should also be applicable to large animal transgenics produced by nuclear transfer from cultured cell lines.
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PMID:A one-step gene amplification system for use in cultured mammalian cells and transgenic animals. 1130 60

Anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C)-mediated proteolysis is essential for chromosome segregation, mitotic exit, and G1 entry. Here, we show the importance of APC/C in the control of dTTP pool size in mammalian cells. Two enzymes, thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) and thymidylate kinase (TMPK), involved in dTTP formation are the targets of the APC/C pathway. We demonstrate that TMPK is recognized and degraded by APC/C-Cdc20/Cdh1-mediated pathways from mitosis to the early G1 phase, whereas TK1 is targeted for degradation by APC/C-Cdh1 after mitotic exit. Overexpression of wild-type TK1 and TMPK induces a four- to fivefold increase in the cellular dTTP pool without promoting spontaneous mutations in the hprt (hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase) gene. In contrast, coexpression of nondegradable TK1 and TMPK expands the dTTP pool size 10-fold accompanied by a drastic dNTP pool imbalance. Most interestingly, disruption of APC/C proteolysis of TK1 and TMPK leads to growth retardation and a striking increase in gene mutation rate. We conclude that down-regulation of dTTP pool size by the APC/C pathway during mitosis and the G1 phase is an essential means to maintain a balanced dNTP pool and to avoid genetic instability.
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PMID:Control of dTTP pool size by anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome is essential for the maintenance of genetic stability. 1610 19