Identification of the internal ribosome entry sites in the 5'­untranslated region of the c­fos gene.

ABSTRACT

The Fos proto­oncogene, activator protein­1 (AP­1) transcription factor subunit (c­fos) gene, a member of the immediate early gene family, encodes c­Fos, which is a subunit of the AP­1 transcription factor. The present study aimed to investigate the mechanism by which the translation efficiency of c­fos mRNA is upregulated when cellular protein synthesis is shut off. The result of western blotting revealed that the protein expression levels of c­Fos were increased in rhabdomyosarcoma cells infected with enterovirus 71 (EV71) compared with uninfected cells. PCR was used to get the c­fos 5'­untranslated region (UTR). The luciferase assay of a bicistronic vector containing the c­fos 5'UTR revealed that the c­fos 5'UTR contains an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) sequence and a 175 nucleotide sequence (between 31 and 205 nt) that is essential for IRES activity. Analysis of potential IRES trans­acting factors revealed that poly(C)­binding protein 2 (PCBP2) negatively regulated the activity of the c­fos IRES, whereas the La autoantigen (La) positively regulated its activity. The results of RNA­protein immunoprecipitation demonstrated that both PCBP2 and La bound to the c­fos 5'UTR. Furthermore, the IRES activity of in vitro­transcribed c­fos mRNA was upregulated during EV71 infection. The present study suggested a mechanism for the effect of viral infection on host genes, and provided a novel target for gene translation regulation.