Involvement of inhibitory PAS domain protein in neuronal cell death in Parkinson's disease.

Inhibitory PAS domain protein (IPAS), a repressor of hypoxia-inducible factor-dependent transcription under hypoxia, was found to exert pro-apoptotic activity in oxidative stress-induced cell death. However, physiological and pathological processes associated with this activity are not known. Here we show that IPAS is a key molecule involved in neuronal cell death in Parkinson's disease (PD). IPAS was ubiquitinated by Parkin for proteasomal degradation following carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone treatment. Phosphorylation of IPAS at Thr12 by PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1) was required for ubiquitination to occur. Activation of the PINK1-Parkin pathway attenuated IPAS-dependent apoptosis. IPAS was markedly induced in the midbrain following 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) administration, and IPAS-deficient mice showed resistance to MPTP-induced degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc). A significant increase in IPAS expression was found in SNpc neurons in patients with sporadic PD. These results indicate a mechanism of neurodegeneration in PD.

Molecular cloning of cDNA encoding a novel microphthalmia-associated transcription factor isoform with a distinct amino-terminus.

Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) is a basic helix-loop-helix-leucine zipper protein, and plays an important role in the development of various cell types, such as neural-crest-derived melanocytes and optic-cup-derived retinal pigment epithelium. Three isoforms of MITF with distinct amino-termini have been described. These include melanocyte lineage-specific MITF-M, heart-type MITF-H, and the recently identified MITF-A. Here we identify a fourth isoform, MITF-C, with a unique amino-terminus of 34 amino acid residues, which shares about 43% sequence identity with putative transactivation segments of two previously identified leukemogenic factors, ENL and AF-9. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that MITF-C mRNA is expressed in many cell types, including retinal pigment epithelium, but is undetectable in melanocyte-lineage cells. In contrast, MITF-A and MITF-H mRNAs are coexpressed in all cell types examined. Transient cotransfection assays suggested that MITF-C, like other MITF isoforms, functions as a transcriptional activator of certain target genes, but its transactivation specificity for the target promoters is different from those of other MITF isoforms. Therefore, isoform multiplicity provides MITF with differential expression patterns as well as functional diversity.

Differential tissue-specific expression of neurofibromin isoform mRNAs in rat.

We have cloned the full-length cDNA encoding the rat homolog of type I neurofibromin isoform, a protein product of a gene linked to neurofibromatosis type 1. Rat type I neurofibromin isoform is composed of 2,820 amino acid residues and shares about 98.5% amino acid identity with the human counterpart. By S1 nuclease mapping analysis of the alternatively spliced neurofibromin mRNAs in adult rat tissues, we showed that type I isoform mRNA was predominantly expressed in the brain, pituitary, and testis, while type II mRNA, carrying a 63-nucleotide insertion in the region coding for the domain related to GTPase-activating protein, was predominantly expressed in most other tissues, such as heart, kidney, and ovary. Furthermore, type II mRNA is predominant in the testis at age 1 week, while type I mRNA becomes predominant at 3 weeks and is subsequently expressed at higher levels, as seen in the adult testis. In contrast, type I mRNA is the predominant form in the brain throughout the postnatal development. Thus, the relative expression levels of type I and type II mRNAs may be specific to the tissues and to the developmental stage of certain tissues.

A novel cis-acting DNA element required for a high level of inducible expression of the rat P-450c gene.

A novel cis-acting regulatory element (designated BTE for basic transcription element) was found in the region proximal to the TATA sequence of the P-450c gene by the use of deletion mutations. This DNA element is considered to be involved in the basic transcription of the gene and does not show distinct enhancer activity in itself. Together with the XRE sequence (A. Fujisawa-Sehara, K. Sogawa, M. Yamane, and Y. Fujii-Kuriyama, Nucleic Acids Res. 15:4179-4191, 1987), however, this sequence is required for a high inducible expression of the P-450c gene in response to xenobiotic inducers. The BTE sequence contained the GC box consensus sequence and half of the NF-1-binding consensus or CAT box sequence, but their synthetic oligonucleotides, used as competitors in the gel mobility shift assays, did not compete with the BTE sequence for the binding protein, suggesting that the BTE sequence functions as a different recognition sequence from that for Sp1 or NF-1. Analogous sequences to BTE are found in the region proximal to the TATA sequence of other genes, especially other P-450 genes with different modes of regulation, suggesting that the BTE sequence plays a common regulatory role in basic transcription of genes including a group of the P-450 superfamily. The ubiquitous distribution of nuclear factor(s) binding to this element supports this suggestion.