A direct contact between the dorsal rel homology domain and Twist may mediate transcriptional synergy.

The establishment of mesoderm and neuroectoderm in the early Drosophila embryo relies on interactions between the Dorsal morphogen and basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH) activators. Here we show that Dorsal and the bHLH activator Twist synergistically activate transcription in cell culture and in vitro from a promoter containing binding sites for both factors. Somewhat surprisingly, a region of Twist outside the conserved bHLH domain is required for the synergy. In Dorsal, the rel homology domain appears to be sufficient for synergy. Protein-protein interaction assays show that Twist and Dorsal bind to one another in vitro. However, this interaction does not appear to be of sufficient strength to yield cooperative binding to DNA. Nonetheless, the regions of Twist and Dorsal required for the binding interaction are also required for synergistic transcriptional activation.

The RAS oncogene induces genomic instability in thyroid PCCL3 cells via the MAPK pathway.

Activating mutations of RAS are thought to be early events in the evolution of thyroid follicular neoplasms. We used a doxycycline-inducible expression system to explore the acute effects of H-RAS12 on genomic stability in thyroid PCCL3 cells. At 2-3 days (first or second cell cycle) there was a significant increase in the frequency of micronucleation. Treatment of cells with YVAD-CHO inhibited RAS-induced apoptosis, but had no effect on micronucleation. The effects of H-RAS(V12) were mediated by activation of MAPK, as treatment with PD98059 at concentrations verified to selectively inhibit MEK1 reduced the frequency of prevalence of cells with micronuclei. In addition, doxycycline-inducible expression of a constitutively active MEK1, but not of a mutant RAC1, mimicked the effects of H-RAS(V12). The effects of H-RAS(V12) on genome destabilization were apparent even though the sequence of p53 in PCCL3 cells was confirmed to be wild-type. Acute activation of H-RAS(V12) evoked a proportional increase in both CREST negative and CREST positive micronuclei, indicating that both clastogenic and aneugenic effects were involved. H-RAS(V12) and activated MEK1 also induced centrosome amplification, and chromosome misalignment. Evidence that acute expression of constitutively activated RAS destabilizes the genome of PCCL3 cells is consistent with a mode of tumor initiation in which this oncogene promotes phenotypic progression by predisposing to large scale genomic abnormalities.

Conditional apoptosis induced by oncogenic ras in thyroid cells.

Mutations of ras are tumor-initiating events for many cell types, including thyrocytes. To explore early consequences after oncogenic Ras activation, we developed a doxycycline-inducible expression system in rat thyroid PCCL3 cells. Beginning 3-4 days after H-Ras(v12) expression, cells underwent apoptosis. The H-Ras(v12) effects on apoptosis were decreased by a mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK1) inhibitor and recapitulated by doxycycline-inducible expression of an activated MEK1 mutant (MEK1(S217E/S221E)). As reported elsewhere, acute expression of H-Ras(v12) also induces mitotic defects in PCCL3 cells through ERK (extracellular ligand-regulated kinase) activation, suggesting that apoptosis may be secondary to DNA damage. However, acute activation of SAPK/JNK (stress-activated protein kinase/Jun N-terminal kinase) through acute expression of Rac1(v12) also triggered apoptosis, without inducing large-scale genomic abnormalities. H-Ras(v12)-induced apoptosis was dependent on concomitant activation of cAMP by either TSH or forskolin, in a protein kinase A-independent manner. Thus, coactivation of cAMP-dependent pathways and ERK or JNK (either through H-Ras(v12), Rac1(v12), or MEK1(S217E/S221E)) is inconsistent with cell survival. The fate of thyrocytes within the first cell cycles after expression of oncogenic Ras is dependent on ambient TSH levels. If both cAMP and Ras signaling are simultaneously activated, most cells will die. Those that survive will eventually lose TSH responsiveness and/or inactivate the apoptotic cascade through secondary events, thus enabling clonal expansion.

Protein L-isoaspartyl methyltransferase in postmortem brains of aged humans.

The specific activity of protein L-isoaspartyl methyltransferase, an enzyme implicated in the metabolism of damaged, isoaspartate-containing proteins, has been measured in postmortem samples of parietal cortex from 30 individuals (19 with Alzheimer's disease and 11 controls). Methyltransferase specific activity was positively correlated with age at death, increasing by 2.9 pmol/min/mg of protein for every ten years of age (r = .51, p less than 0.005). This correlation was significant in the control and Alzheimer's disease groups alike. Specific activity also appeared to be about 15% higher in females than in age- and diagnosis-matched males (p less than 0.05). No significant differences were observed between age- and sex-matched Alzheimer patients and controls, suggesting that a deficiency in this enzyme is not responsible for the accumulation of abnormal proteins in Alzheimer's disease.

Deamidation of calmodulin at neutral and alkaline pH: quantitative relationships between ammonia loss and the susceptibility of calmodulin to modification by protein carboxyl methyltransferase.

Measurements of ammonia release provide the first direct evidence that calmodulin becomes extensively deamidated during incubations at 37 degrees C, pH 7.4 or pH 11. A stoichiometry of 0.5 mol of NH3 released/mol of calmodulin is observed after 2 h at pH 11 or after 8-9 days at pH 7.4. These treatments also increase the ability of calmodulin to serve as a substrate for the isoaspartate-specific protein carboxyl methyltransferase from bovine brain. The stoichiometries of methylation are highly correlated with the stoichiometries of ammonia release. Deamidation and increased methyl-accepting capacity also occur in parallel for seven other proteins (aldolase, bovine serum albumin, cytochrome c, lysozyme, ovalbumin, ribonuclease A, and triosephosphate isomerase) upon incubation at pH 11. However, in comparison to calmodulin, these other proteins show very little deamidation and increased methylation capacity following incubation at pH 7.4. Deamidation of calmodulin at pH 7.4 is unaffected by the addition of 10(-7) M Ca2+; however, at 4 X 10(-6) M Ca2+, the rate of deamidation is inhibited by approximately 70%. The Ca2+-protection effect is consistent with the suggestion (B. A. Johnson, N. E. Freitag, and D. W. Aswad, (1985) J. Biol. Chem. 260, 10913-10916) that deamidation occurs preferentially at Asn-60 and/or Asn-97, each of which resides in a distinct Ca2+-binding domain.

The interplay between multiple enhancer and silencer elements defines the pattern of decapentaplegic expression.

The product of the zygotically active decapentaplegic (dpp) gene appears to function as a morphogen that specifies positional information in the dorsal half of the Drosophila embryo. The dorsal-specific transcription of dpp is the key step in establishing a morphogen gradient. We demonstrate here that multiple regions within the second intron of the gene cooperate with one another to generate the wild-type level and pattern of dpp transcription. These regions contain both generalized enhancer elements as well as ventral-specific repressor elements. Placed within the context of heterologous promoters, the intron retains its ability to direct general activation and ventral repression. The ventral specific repression of dpp transcription is directly mediated by binding sites for the dorsal (dl) morphogen in the repressor elements. In contrast with the zerknüllt (zen) ventral repressor element, which contains a few high-affinity dl-binding sites, dpp contains multiple relatively low-affinity sites that function together to bring about complete ventral repression. Because dpp and zen have nearly coincident early expression domains, these results indicate that the same boundary of repression can be specified by dl-binding sites of different affinity. We discuss the possibility that unknown factors interact with dl protein to determine the domain of dl-mediated repression.

Formation of isoaspartate at two distinct sites during in vitro aging of human growth hormone.

In vitro aging at pH 7.4, 37 degrees C causes natural sequence recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH), methionyl rhGH, and human pituitary growth hormone to become substrates for bovine brain protein carboxyl methyltransferase, an enzyme that modifies the "side chain" alpha-carboxyl group present at atypical isoaspartyl linkages. The substrate capacity of rhGH increased at a rate of 1.8 methyl-accepting sites/day/100 molecules of hormone. Reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) of trypsin digests of aged rhGH revealed two altered peptides not present in digests of control rhGH. These two fragments, which had the amino acid compositions of residues 128-134 (Leu-Glu-Asp-Gly-Ser-Pro-Arg) and 146-158 (Phe-Asp-Thr-Asn-Ser-His-Asn-Asp-Asp-Ala-Leu-Leu-Lys), contained the majority of the induced methylation sites, 22 and 58%, respectively. Isoaspartate can result from deamidation of asparagine or isomerization of aspartate. Isomerization of Asp-130, the only candidate site in 128-134, was corroborated by coelution of the altered fragment with the synthetic isoaspartyl peptide upon reversed-phase HPLC. Evidence is presented that the altered 146-158 fragment is a mixture of two peptides resulting from deamidation of Asn-149 to form 70-80% isoaspartate and 20-30% aspartate at this position. The position of isoaspartate in the altered 146-158 fragment was deduced from mass spectrometry, which indicated a single deamidated asparagine; from methylation stoichiometry, which indicated only one methylation site; and from automated Edman degradation, which showed an absence of asparagine and a low yield of aspartate at position 149. These results show that isoaspartate formation from both aspartate and asparagine is a significant, and possibly the major, source of spontaneous covalent alteration of rhGH and that enzymatic carboxyl methylation provides a powerful tool for assessing this type of modification.

Binding sites for transcription factor NTF-1/Elf-1 contribute to the ventral repression of decapentaplegic.

The Dorsal morphogen is a transcription factor that activates some genes and represses others to establish multiple domains of gene expression along the dorsal/ventral axis of the early Drosophila embryo. Repression by Dorsal appears to require accessory proteins that bind to corepression elements in Dorsal-dependent regulatory modules called ventral repression regions (VRRs). We have identified a corepression element in decapentaplegic (dpp), a zygotically active gene that is repressed by the Dorsal morphogen. This dpp repression element (DRE) is located within a previously identified VRR and close to essential Dorsal-binding sites. We have purified a factor from Drosophila embryo extracts that binds to the DRE but not to mutant forms of the DRE that fail to support efficient repression. This protein also binds to an apparently essential region in a VRR associated with the zerknüllt (zen) gene. One of the DREs in the dpp VRR overlaps the binding site for a potential activator protein suggesting that one mechanism of ventral repression may be the mutually exclusive binding of repressor and activator proteins. We have found the DRE-binding protein to be identical to NTF-1 (equivalent to Elf-1, the product of the grainyhead gene), a factor originally identified as an activator of the Ultrabithorax and Dopa decarboxylase promoters. NTF-1 mRNA is synthesized during oogenesis and deposited in the developing oocyte where it is available to contribute to ventral repression during early embryogenesis. Previous studies have shown that overexpression of NTF-1 in the postblastoderm embryo results in a phenotype that is consistent with a role for this factor in the repression of dpp later in embryogenesis.