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J Virol, August 1998, p. 6414-6420, Vol. 72, No. 8
Department of Bacteriology, Faculty of
Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
113-0033, Japan
Received 3 December 1997/Accepted 5 May 1998
The 441-nucleotide (nt) region (nt 5325 to 5766) around the splice
acceptor (SA) site (nt 5491) was found to be necessary for high-level
expression of gag-containing unspliced RNA of Moloney murine leukemia virus (M. Oshima, T. Odawara, T. Matano, H. Sakahira, K. Kuchino, A. Iwamoto, and H. Yoshikura, J. Virol. 70:2286-2295, 1996). Detailed genetic dissection of the 441-nt region revealed that
the 5'-end 64 nt (nt 5325 to 5389) were necessary for high-level expression of the unspliced RNA when the spliced RNA was not produced, while the 3'-side 301 nt (nt 5466 to 5766) containing the SA site were
necessary for producing spliced RNA. When the spliced RNA was produced,
the unspliced RNA could be expressed at a high level even when the
5'-end 64 nt were absent. Probably the virus sequence ensuring the
splicing could produce an RNA structure able to compensate for the
function of the 5'-end 64-nt region responsible for the expression of
the unspliced RNA.
Murine leukemia viruses produce
unspliced and spliced RNAs. The unspliced RNA is packaged into virions
as genomic RNA and is also used as mRNA encoding Gag precursor and
Gag-Pol fusion proteins. The spliced RNA encodes Env protein. This
scheme is maintained in all of the retroviruses, including lentiviruses and spumaviruses. Production of both unspliced and spliced RNAs in
proper amounts is essential for the replication of retroviruses. Although cis elements affecting the efficiency of splicing
have been reported previously (1, 2, 9, 14, 15, 19, 20), the
detail of the regulation remains unknown.
We previously reported that G3.6, a mutant which was
derived from Moloney murine leukemia virus (MLV) by deleting most of
pol (nucleotides [nt] 2206 to 4600) and env (nt
4894 to 7674) and which consequently contained the Gag-coding region
alone, produced only about 1/10 of the wild-type RNA level. The
ligation of 441 nt containing a splice acceptor (SA) site to the 3' end
of the gag region restored the level of the unspliced
message, simultaneously activating a cryptic splice donor site in the
middle of the p30-coding region. Deletion of the 441 nt from the
wild-type (wt) MLV resulted in the loss of the spliced RNA and
concomitantly in a severe reduction of the unspliced RNA. The reduction
of the RNA level was not due to the instability of RNA in the cytoplasm
but was due to the reduced stability in the nucleus and/or inefficient
nuclear-cytoplasmic transport of the RNA. The polyadenylation appeared
unaffected by the mutation. We also found a region in gag
which made expression of the unspliced RNA dependent on the region
around the SA site (23). These experiments suggested that
the 441-nt region around the SA site was crucial for producing enough
gag region-containing unspliced RNA.
Since the 441-nt region contained the SA site, it remained unknown
whether the splicing event itself was necessary for ensuring high-level
expression of gag region-containing unspliced mRNA. The
temperature shift experiments with a mutant whose splicing was
temperature sensitive suggested that the splicing event itself was
unnecessary (23) but that more crucial experiments were needed to arrive at this conclusion. In the present work, we tried to
answer this question by examining the levels of unspliced RNA in
various MLV mutants constructed by modifying the 441-nt region.
Plasmids.
The infectious proviral MLV DNA used in this work
originated from clone 48, which was a lambda clone containing an
EcoRI DNA fragment from an MLV-infected mouse fibroblast
line (3). This fragment was subcloned into
EcoRI-cut pBR322 (pArMLV-48) (13, 21). The
PstI sites in the cellular sequence, 1.7 kb upstream and 148 bases downstream from the 5' and 3' ends of the provirus in pArMLV-48,
were used to subclone the proviral DNA into pSVKhmB-derived vector
(23). Since the deletions and base substitutions were introduced into the provirus of this construct, all of the constructs used in this paper were flanked by about 1.7 kb and 148 bases of
cellular DNA derived from the active site of MLV transcription. This is
probably the reason why the transcript levels per proviral copy were
similar for all of the transfected mouse cell clones (23).
The simian virus 40 (SV40) promoter-driven hygromycin resistance gene
was inserted in 0.2 kb downstream of the 3' long terminal repeat (LTR)
in the same orientation as the MLV provirus, and its expression served
as an internal standard of the provirus expression (23). The
mutations were generated by PCR amplification over the relevant
regions. The oligonucleotide primers for PCR were synthesized by BEX
Inc. (Tokyo, Japan). The structures of the mutant constructs are shown
at the top of each figure. They were all checked by sequencing.
Cell transfection.
Subconfluent cultures of NIH 3T3 cells
(2 × 105/6-cm-diameter dish) were transfected with 10 µg of plasmid DNA per dish by the standard calcium phosphate
precipitation method (20). Selection with hygromycin (200 µg/ml) was started 48 h after transfection and continued for 3 weeks. A total of 50 to 100 colonies appeared in each dish. The culture
medium employed was Eagle's minimal essential medium supplemented with
7.5% fetal calf serum.
RNA analysis.
Cells were cultured in 10-cm-diameter dishes
at 37°C for 4 days, and the total RNA was extracted by the acid
guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform method (8). For
Northern blot analysis, 5 µg of total RNA was electrophoresed in a
formalin-1% agarose gel and blotted onto a Nitro-plus 2000 filter
(Micron Separations, Inc., Westboro, Mass.). The
ClaI-SacI fragment (nt 7674 to 8229 in the 3' LTR region [Fig. 1]) of a cloned MLV, p8.2
(25), was used to detect all of the viral messages. The
SmaI-HpaI fragment of pSVKhmB containing the
hygromycin resistance gene (hygr)
(23) was used for detecting the hygr
gene message, which was used as an internal standard. For rough quantitation of RNA, the data were processed with the Bioimaging analyzer (Fuji Photo Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). The radioactivity of a
band corresponding to the unspliced RNA and that of the
hygr transcript band were measured by a program
in the analyzer, and the former value was divided by the latter. The
ratio of the value thus obtained for a given sample to that obtained
for wt
0022-538X/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
cis Elements Required for High-Level
Expression of Unspliced gag-Containing Message in Moloney
Murine Leukemia Virus
ABSTRACT
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials & Methods
Results
Discussion
References
INTRODUCTION
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials & Methods
Results
Discussion
References
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials & Methods
Results
Discussion
References
SA was calculated. For obtaining the corresponding value for
the wt, the radioactivity in the unspliced RNA band for the same amount of provirus copy was estimated for the wt and wtSA, and the ratio of
the former to the latter was calculated. The ratios thus obtained for
the wt were 2.3 for one experiment (Fig. 1)
and 3.2 for another (Fig. 2). The
quantitation by Northern blotting of the serially diluted sample showed
that the relative amount of RNA expressed by the wt MLV in comparison
with wtSA was about 10:1 (23). Therefore, the values 2.3 and 3.2, respectively, in the above experiments corresponded to 10-fold
more RNA relative to the value 1.
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FIG. 1.
Genetic dissection of the 441-nt region (nt 5325 to
5766). Thick lines, viral genome; thin lines, deleted regions; arrows,
3' direction of the viral genome. For example, wtUA D had the
upstream XbaI-SA region (nt 5325 to 5491) in the inverted
orientation and deletion of the downstream SA-XbaI region
(nt 5491 to 5766). In Northern blot analysis, 5 µg of total cellular
RNAs from the stable transfectants was loaded in each lane (lanes 2 to
8). Since the wt MLV-infected cells contained approximately 16-fold
more proviral copies (23), the 16-fold-diluted RNA extract
from the wt MLV-infected cells was applied to the gel for comparison
(lane 1). The 3' LTR probe (nt 7647 to 8229 [hatched box]) was used
to detect the viral RNA, and the SmaI-HpaI
fragment of pSVKhmB containing the hygr coding
region was used to detect the reference hygr
mRNA (23). The ratios of radioactivity in the unspliced RNA
band to radioactivity in the corresponding band in wtSA (see
Materials and Methods) were 2.2 for wtUSD (lane 3), 0.3 for wtUAD
(lane 4), 1.1 for wtUDS (lane 5), 1.1 for wtUDA (lane 6), 6.9 for
wtUSDA (lane 7), and 4.0 for wtUADS (lane 8). The value for
24-diluted wt was 3.2. Since the previous estimation
indicated that the wt produced 10-fold more RNA per proviral copy than
wtSA (23), the value 3.2 in this experiment roughly
indicates 10-fold more RNA copies per provirus compared with the value
1. u, unspliced mRNA; s, spliced mRNA.
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FIG. 2.
Effects of ligation of the fragment at nt 5325 to 5491 to G3.3 (G3.3US) or G3.6
(G3.6US) on transcription level. The probes used in Fig. 1
were used for Northern blot analysis. Open arrowhead, unspliced RNA;
closed arrowhead, spliced RNA.
Immunoblotting. Protein was extracted with radioimmunoprecipitation assay buffer (150 mM NaCl, 20 mM Tris-HCl [pH 7.5], 0.5% sodium deoxycholate, 1% Triton X-100, 0.05% sodium dodecyl sulfate [SDS]) from the confluent cultures grown in 6-cm-diameter dishes. An aliquot of 8 µg of protein extract was electrophoresed through an SDS-10% polyacrylamide gel and blotted onto a Nitro-plus 2000 filter (Micron Separations, Inc.). Pr65gag was detected with anti-p30 monoclonal antibody R18-7 (7). Antibody bound to the filter was detected by using an enhanced chemiluminescence Western immunoblotting detection system (Amersham) and XAR-5 film (Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y.). The polyacrylamide gels were stained with Coomassie brilliant blue to check the amounts of loaded proteins.
RT-PCR and sequencing. Reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) was performed with the whole-RNA extracts (24). The primers used for the RT-PCR around the splice junction were ENcom (nt 6037 to 6018 [5'-AGATGGTCCATGGTGGGCTA-3']) and Kpnp (nt 28 to 50 [5'-CCCGGGTACCCGTGTATCCAATA-3']). The amplified fragments were subcloned into the SmaI site of pBluescriptII and were sequenced by using a Taq dye terminator cycle sequencing kit (Perkin-Elmer) and an ABI 373 A sequencer.
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RESULTS |
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Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials & Methods
Results
Discussion
References
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Different roles played by the 5' and 3' halves of the 441-nt
region.
The wt MLV-infected cells produced 24-fold
more RNA per cell than the cells transfected with the
replication-incompetent MLV proviruses, such as wt, fswt, or
GE6.4 (23). Since the former contained
24-fold more proviral copies per cell than the latter,
levels of RNA expression per proviral copy were considered
approximately the same for both (23). Therefore, to compare
RNAs or proteins expressed by the mutant provirus with those expressed
by the wt virus, the samples from the wt MLV-infected cells were
diluted 24-fold and applied to the gels. For comparison
among the mutants, the expression of SV40 promoter-driven
hygr, which was inserted downstream of the
provirus (23), was used as an internal standard.
SA
(compare lanes 5 and 6 with lane 2). Deletion or inversion of the 3'
half of the region also abolished splicing but did not reduce the level
of unspliced RNA when the 5' half of the region was present in the
correct orientation (lanes 3 and 7). Inversion of the 5' half in the
absence of the 3' half greatly reduced the unspliced RNA level (lanes
4). These observations suggested (i) that the splicing required
both the 5' and 3' halves and (ii) that high-level expression of the
unspliced RNA required the intact sequence of the 5' half of the
441 nt when the splicing was absent.
When the 3'-half region was retained intact and the 5' half was
inverted, the spliced RNA was produced and, at the same time, the
unspliced RNA was produced at a high level (Fig. 1, lane 8). In our
previous experiments, expression of unspliced RNA could be restored by
the 441-nt fragment ligated in the antisense orientation immediately
downstream of the Gag-coding region which simultaneously activated the
silent SA signal (23). In both cases, the region which was
found responsible for producing the unspliced RNA at a high level was
in the inverted orientation, but the spliced RNA was produced.
Therefore, it was speculated that a secondary structure ensuring the
production of spliced RNA could compensate the 5' half's function in
restoring high-level expression of the unspliced RNA.
G3.6 was obtained by deleting nt 4894 to 7674 from
GE6.4 to remove the env region (23),
and G3.3 was obtained by further deletion of the remaining
nt 4600 to 4894 in the pol region (Fig. 2, left panel). Both
G3.6 and G3.3 had only the Gag-coding region
and produced Gag-coding RNA at a low level (Fig. 2, right panel, lanes
2, 5, and 6). Ligation of the 441 nt to the 3' end (nt 4894) of
gag (Fig. 2) in G3.6 restored the level of the
unspliced RNA, concomitantly resulting in production of the spliced RNA
(23). In order to know if the 5' half of the 441 nt alone
had a signal sufficient for the production of unspliced RNA at a high
level, it was inserted immediately downstream of gag both in
G3.6 and G3.3 to obtain G3.6US and
G3.3US, respectively. The levels of RNA produced by
G3.6US and by G3.3US were not increased in
comparison with those for G3.6 and G3.3,
indicating that the 5'-half region of the 441 nt alone was incapable of
restoring the transcript level.
Detailed dissection of the 5'-half region. Since the above experiments suggested that the 5' half of the 441-nt region (nt 5325 to 5490) was responsible for high-level production of the unspliced RNA, we tried to narrow down the responsible region further. The 441-nt region was divided into four regions, i.e., region A (nt 5325 to 5389), region B (nt 5390 to 5464), region C (nt 5465 to 5490), and region D (nt 5491 to 5765). The regions A, B, and C are upstream of SA, and region D is downstream. The constructs without region D produced no spliced RNA (Fig. 3, lanes 4 to 10). Deletion of region A in the absence of region D resulted in low-level expression of the unspliced RNA (lanes 5 to 7), indicating that region A was essential for high-level expression of the unspliced RNA in the absence of splicing. In the constructs which had region A but not region D (lanes 8 to 10), the presence of region B instead suppressed the increase in the level of the unspliced RNA attributable to region A (lanes 8 and 9).
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(5325-5465)DS
expressed a high level of the unspliced RNA (lane 13). The presence of
region B instead suppressed expression of the unspliced RNA (compare
lanes 11 to 12 with lane 13). These observations suggested that (i)
region C together with region D downstream of the SA site was
indispensable for the production of the spliced RNA, (ii) generation of
the spliced RNA could compensate for the function of region A (nt 5325 to 5389) at least partly in producing the unspliced RNA (lane 13), and
(iii) the presence of region B instead suppressed the increase in the
level of unspliced RNA attributable to the generation of spliced RNA
(lanes 11 and 12). Comparison of lanes 8 to 10 with lanes 14 to 16 indicated that the retention of region D elevated the basal level of
the production of the unspliced RNA in the absence of splicing.
Base substitution mutants in the 441-nt region. Since the above experiments dealt with deletion mutants which affected gene structure substantially, we asked whether base substitutions could result in high-level expression of unspliced mRNA without producing spliced RNA. The data are summarized in Fig. 4. A base change from CAA GCT (GlnAla) to CGG ACT (ArgThr) at the splice boundary (wtAg0 in Fig. 4) shifted the SA site to the next downstream AG. A further base change from CAG GCT (GlnAla) to CAA CTT (GlnLeu) at the second SA site (wtAg01) resulted in splicing by using the two further downstream AG's (Fig. 4, lane 6; the two SA sites which were determined by RT-PCR amplification of the transcripts and their sequencing are indicated by upward arrowheads in the upper panel). The point mutations of all four potential SA sites (wtAg0123) resulted in the loss of the spliced RNA but also in the reduction of unspliced RNA (Fig. 4, lane 7). The base change from CAA GCT (GlnAla) to CAA CCT (GlnPro) at the first SA (wtg0-C) or the further base change from CAG GCT (GlnAla) to CAA TCT (GlnSer) at the second SA (wtg01-AT) retained the splicing of the transcripts (Fig. 4, lanes 12 and 13). Thus, deprivation of the downstream SA sites by a base change could not produce mutants expressing unspliced RNA at a high level without producing spliced RNA. It was noted that the mutation in the first AG, which relocated the SA site to the next downstream AG, resulted in relatively more spliced RNA (Fig. 4, lanes 5 and 12).
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Gag protein produced by some of the mutants.
In order to
confirm that the mRNA levels of the mutants were reflected in the
protein levels, we compared the levels of Gag products expressed by
some of the constructs (Fig. 5). In the wt
MLV-infected cells which were actively producing virions, Gag precursor
protein was processed into p30 (in Fig. 5, only p30 is visible due to
dilution of the sample; less diluted cell extracts gave the
Pr65gag band clearly [23]).
wtUSD- and wtUAD-transfected cells produced partially processed
Gag p41, which was observed as a major product in wt with a 306-nt
deletion (nt 3229 to 3535) or wtdSA with a 4-nt
insertion (nt 3705) in the pol region (23). wt-G, wt-C, and wt-T produced unprocessed Pr65gag, but
the cleavage into p30 was undetectable. Since the gag region and most of the pol region were intact in these mutant
constructs and, consequently, the protease region was also intact, how
the anomalous processing of the Gag products was produced in these mutants is obscure. Probably, interaction between Gag and Gag-Pol fusion proteins was affected by deletion of or base changes in the
proteins associated with the nucleic acid mutations, and, as a result,
interaction of the protease with Gag was affected. This point is
interesting but is not explored further in the present report. As
expected, wtUAD with a low level of the unspliced RNA produced a low
level of Gag protein, while other constructs (wtUSD, wt-G, wt-C, and
wt-T) with a high level of unspliced mRNA produced a high level of Gag
(Fig. 5).
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DISCUSSION |
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Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials & Methods
Results
Discussion
References
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Generation of both spliced and unspliced RNAs at a proper ratio is essential for the replication of all of the retroviruses. In mouse and avian leukemia viruses, the unspliced RNA encodes Gag and Gag-Pol (it is also used as genomic RNA), and the spliced RNA encodes Env. In human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 or human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), there are two classes of spliced RNAs in addition to the unspliced RNA: a singly spliced RNA encoding Env (Vif also in the case of HIV-1) and multispliced RNAs encoding accessory regulatory proteins, such as Tax or Tat and Rex or Rev, etc. Rev or Rex translated from the multispliced RNA is known to interact with the viral sequence RRE to ensure expression of the unspliced and singly spliced RNAs (18). The Rev-RRE interaction requires splice sites (6) and may involve small nuclear RNAs which are involved in splicing (16, 17). Thus, expression of the unspliced and singly spliced RNAs appeared to be regulated by the virus-coded accessory protein and cellular factor(s) involved in the splicing. This regulation is reported to operate in nuclear-cytoplasmic transport or stabilization of these RNAs (6, 12, 22). If there is a regulation of the unspliced and singly spliced RNAs versus multiply spliced RNAs, it is reasonable to suppose a presence of similar regulation of the unspliced RNA encoding Gag and Gag-Pol versus singly spliced RNA encoding Env, and such a regulation must exist in all retroviruses. Actually, cis elements affecting the efficiency of splicing and the stability of unspliced RNA have been reported for avian and some mammalian retroviruses (1, 2, 5, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, 20, 23, 26).
We previously reported that the 441-nt sequence around SA (nt 5326 to 57666) was necessary for high-level expression of unspliced gag-containing RNA of MLV (23). The previous experiments, however, did not clarify whether the phenomenon of splicing and the high-level expression of the unspliced RNA could be dissociated. In this report, we dissected the 441-nt region in more detail.
Analyses of mutants in this report showed that splicing and high-level expression of the unspliced RNA could actually be dissociated. Deletion or inversion of the sequence spanning from the SA site (nt 5491) down to the 3' end of the 441-nt sequence (nt 5766) (region D in Fig. 6) completely eliminated the spliced RNA while retaining high-level expression of the unspliced RNA. Meanwhile, deletion or inversion of the sequence in the region upstream of SA in the 441-nt region, i.e., nt 5325 to 5491, drastically reduced the level of the unspliced RNA (an exception was wtUADS which produced both spliced and unspliced RNAs; see below for discussion) (Fig. 1), i.e., the upstream region of SA (nt 5325 to 5491) in the 441-nt region was required for high-level expression of the unspliced RNA in the absence of splicing. However, when this region alone was ligated to the 3' end of gag of the Gag-encoding proviruses (G3.6US and G3.3US) (Fig. 2), unlike the whole 441-nt region (23), the level of the unspliced RNA was not elevated, indicating that the 5'-half region alone was not functional.
The region upstream of SA in the 441-nt region was divided into three
regions, i.e., A, B, and C (Fig. 6) and analyzed in more detail. We
found that the 5'-end 64-nt (nt 5325 to 5390) region A was
indispensable for high-level expression of the unspliced RNA (Fig. 2,
compare lanes 5 and 10). However, some constructs which were lacking in
region A but produced the spliced RNA, such as wtUS(5325-5465)DS
(Fig. 3, lane 13) and wtUADS (Fig. 1, lane 8), produced the unspliced
RNA at a high level. This suggested that the splicing could compensate,
at least partly, the function of region A, which ensured high-level
expression of the unspliced RNA in the absence of splicing. This
supposition was also supported by high-level expression of the
unspliced RNA by GinvSA (23), which had the
whole 441-nt region in the inverted orientation but produced spliced
RNA.
When the region downstream of the SA site (region D) was left intact, deletion from the 5' end of the 441-nt region to nt 5465 (regions A and B) did not abolish splicing (Fig. 3, lanes 11 to 13), but the further deletions of 27 nt of the SA site completely abolished splicing (Fig. 1, lane 5). The 32-nt deletion immediately upstream of the SA site (nt 5460 to 5491) alone could abolish splicing even though the downstream potential SA sites (Fig. 2, lane 14; see also Fig. 4, upper panel) remained intact. Therefore, region C immediately upstream of the SA site together with its downstream region D was found to be essential for splicing.
The presence of region B, either in the absence (Fig. 3, lanes 8 and 9) or the presence of region D (Fig. 3, lanes 11 and 12), lowered the expression of unspliced RNA in comparison with its absence (lanes 10 and 13, respectively). It appeared that region B suppressed expression of the unspliced RNA both in the region A-dependent, splicing-independent expression and the region A-independent, splicing-dependent expression of the unspliced RNA. Retention of the region D downstream of the SA site appeared to increase the level of the unspliced RNA in the constructs which did not produce spliced RNA (Fig. 3, compare lanes 8 to 10 and lanes 14 to 16).
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The potential branching point A residue at nt 5473 (Fig. 4) was present in the middle of region C immediately upstream of SA. The base substitution of the A residue and three other A residues nearby with G residues (wt-G in Fig. 4) resulted in the abolishment of splicing while retaining the production of unspliced mRNA at a high level. The base substitution from A to C resulted in a strong shift to the unspliced mRNA while retaining a small amount of spliced mRNA (wt-C in Fig. 4). The base substitution from A to T did not affect the splice pattern (wt-T in Fig. 4). Since an increase in G or C residues results in more G-C pairs, which are more stable than A-T pairs, substitution of A with G or C will result in a higher secondary structure disrupting the local RNA conformation, but substitution of A with T will not. Therefore, after substitution of A's with G's or C's, the secondary structure around the branching point will be greatly changed.
Based on the above observations, we propose, among others, the
following hypothesis. The 5'-half region could be divided into three
regions, i.e., A, B, and C (Fig. 6). We postulate secondary structures
formed by region A with its upstream (5'-end secondary structure),
those formed by region C with its downstream region D (3'-end secondary
structure), those formed by the middle part region B with the 5' end
region A, and those formed by region B with the 3' end region C. Region
B is thus able to competitively inhibit formation of the 5'-end and the
3'-end secondary structures (Fig. 6, bottom). The 5'-end secondary
structure is postulated to be responsible for producing unspliced RNA
in the absence of splicing, and the 3'-end secondary structure is
postulated to be responsible for splicing and concomitant production of
unspliced RNA. If either region A or C is deleted but region B is
retained, region B will form secondary structures with the remaining
region C or A, which will prevent formation of the 3' end or the 5'-end secondary structures. This well explains why the transcript levels of
wtUS(5460-5491)D and wtUS(5325-5390)DS were lower than the transcript levels of their derivatives obtained by further deletion of
region B (Fig. 2, lanes 8 and 11, respectively).
The above hypothesis (as summarized in Fig. 6) can also explain the base substitution mutants. As discussed above, the base substitution of A residues with G or C residues in the potential branching points in region C can change the local folding structure of RNA. The change in the folding structure of region C may result in formation of a stable secondary structure between regions C and B. This will prevent formation of the 3'-end secondary structure necessary for splicing. Since the 5'-end region A is free to interact with the upstream region to form the 5'-end secondary structure, high-level expression of the unspliced RNA in the absence of splicing is ensured. wtAg0123, whose four successive potential SA sites were inactivated, produced no spliced RNA. It produced unspliced RNA only at a low level even though region A-C, which is hypothesized to ensure high-level production of unspliced RNA, was retained intact (Fig. 4, lane 7). It appeared that the mutations in the four candidate SA sites not only abolished splicing but also suppressed expression of the unspliced RNA. Here, three G residues were changed to A residues and one A residue was changed to a G residue. These base substitutions may result in a rather drastic change in the RNA folding structure as discussed above. As a consequence, the mutated region downstream of SA and region C just upstream of it may form a stable secondary structure which is unfavorable for splicing. Region B is then free to interact with region A and prevents formation of the 5'-end secondary structure which is necessary for production of the unspliced RNA. This may explain why the transcript level of wtAg0123 was low.
What is the mechanism which ensures production of unspliced RNA through the cis elements present in the 441-nt region? The level of RNA will be determined by the efficiency of transcription initiation, stability in the nucleus, efficiency of nuclear-cytoplasmic transport, and stability in the cytoplasm. The low level of transcript in the MLV with a deletion in the 441-nt region was found to be due not to instability in the cytoplasm (23) or to inefficient transcription initiation (since the same LTR was used as a promoter for all of the constructs). Therefore, the low level of expression must be caused by intranuclear instability and/or inefficient nuclear-cytoplasmic transport. The genes with introns are transcribed and spliced in the nucleus and are transported to the cytoplasm through the nuclear pores. Transcription and splicing appear to be closely linked; in Drosophila embryos, splicing was shown to occur cotranscriptionally (4). Transcripts containing introns have to complete splicing before they are exported into the cytoplasm; otherwise, the useless transcripts will be exported and will accumulate in the cytoplasm. Therefore, transcription, splicing, and nuclear export are considered to be linked to each other in an orderly fashion. If a transcript cannot interact with splicing and export machineries, it will be degraded.
Our work showed that in MLV, the sequence ensuring the production of
unspliced RNA and the sequence ensuring splicing were present in
different viral genomic elements. This suggested that each element was
interacting with different machineries or enzymes. However, the
constructs lacking in the former region produced unspliced RNA at a
high level if they also produced the spliced RNA [such as wtUAUS and
wtUS(5325-5465)DS]. This indicated a possible interaction between
the processes of the splicing and extranuclear transport and/or
stabilization of the unspliced RNA. To explain these phenomena, we
speculate as follows. In wt MLV, interaction of the 3'-end secondary
structure with the splicing enzymes exposed the 5'-end secondary
structure to the enzymes necessary for nuclear export of the unspliced
RNA. In mutants lacking in the 5'-end region but which produced
unspliced RNA at a high level while producing spliced RNA, an
interaction of the 3'-end region with the splicing enzymes changed the
conformation of the unspliced RNA so that it was more accessible to the
enzymes necessary for nuclear export.
In contrast to other intron-containing genes, the MLV gene must produce both spliced and unspliced RNAs. We have already found a sequence in the gag gene which makes production of unspliced RNA dependent on the production of spliced RNA (23). How the gag gene region affects the 441-nt region responsible for extranuclear transport and/or intranuclear stabilization of RNA remains to be elucidated. Although the model postulated here is highly speculative, it may be useful for designing future experiments.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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This work was supported in part by a grant-in-aid from the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare to H.Y.
We thank M. Oyane for editorial assistance.
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Present address: Deputy Director-General, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1, Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0052, Japan. Phone: 81-3-5285-1111. Fax: 81-3-5285-1356. E-mail: yoshikura{at}nih.go.jp.
Present address: Laboratory of Viral Diseases, National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health,
Bethesda, MD 20892-0445.
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REFERENCES |
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Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials & Methods
Results
Discussion
References
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J Virol, August 1998, p. 6414-6420, Vol. 72, No. 8
0022-538X/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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