Trinucleotide repeat expansion at the myotonic dystrophy locus reduces expression of DMAHP.

Myotonic dystrophy, or dystrophia myotonica (DM), is an autosomal dominant multisystem disorder caused by the expansion of a CTG trinucleotide repeat in the 3' untranslated region of the DMPK protein kinase gene on chromosome 19q13.3 (refs 1-3). Although the DM mutation was identified more than five years ago, the pathogenic mechanisms underlying this most prevalent form of hereditary adult neuromuscular disease remain elusive. Previous work from our laboratory demonstrated that a DNase l-hypersensitive site located adjacent to the repeats on the wild-type allele is eliminated by repeat expansion, indicating that large CTG-repeat arrays may be associated with a local chromatin environment that represses gene expression. Here we report that the hypersensitive site contains an enhancer element that regulates transcription of the adjacent DMAHP homeobox gene. Analysis of DMAHP expression in the cells of DM patients with loss of the hypersensitive site revealed a two- to fourfold reduction in steady-state DMAHP transcript levels relative to wild-type controls. Allele-specific analysis of DMAHP expression showed that steady-state transcript levels from the expanded allele were greatly reduced in comparison to those from the wild-type allele. Together, these results demonstrate that CTG-repeat expansions can suppress local gene expression and implicate DMAHP in DM pathogenesis.

The MMTV LTR promoter is induced by progesterone and dihydrotestosterone but not by estrogen.

Induction of the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) promoter by steroid hormones was examined in chick oviduct primary cell cultures transfected with MMTV-chloramphenicol acetyl transferase fusion constructs. Our results demonstrate that in this system glucocorticoids, progesterone and dihydrotestosterone are all able to stimulate MMTV transcription; induction by progesterone and dihydrotestosterone is not mediated by glucocorticoid receptors, since the specific glucocorticoid antagonist RU486 did not inhibit the response. In contrast, estrogen does not stimulate MMTV transcription, although estrogen does induce the endogenous ovalbumin gene in the same cells. While progesterone effects are mediated by the same response elements within the MMTV long terminal repeat that were originally characterized for the glucocorticoid receptor, an androgen response element has not yet been defined. Our data indicate that the MMTV long terminal repeat does not contain an estrogen response element.

Overexpression of the type II regulatory subunit of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase eliminates the type I holoenzyme in mouse cells.

Mammalian tissues and cell lines express two major types of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, PKA-I and PKA-II, which can be distinguished at the molecular level by the presence of either type I or type II regulatory subunits in the holoenzyme. An expression vector for the mouse type II regulatory subunit (RII alpha) was transfected into ras-transformed NIH3T3 (R3T3) cells, which contain approximately equal amounts of both holoenzymes, PKA-I and PKA-II. In RII alpha-overexpressing R3T3 cells, PKA-II levels were increased, and the level of PKA-I declined. The decrease in PKA-I was dependent on the amount of RII alpha expressed, and at high levels of RII alpha expression, PKA-I was completely eliminated. In contrast, overexpression of the type I regulatory subunit (RI alpha) did not alter PKA isozyme levels. We propose that competition between RII alpha and RI alpha for a limited pool of catalytic subunit results in preferential assembly of PKA-II and that significant amounts of PKA-I are formed only if catalytic subunit is present in excess of the RII alpha subunit. The PKA-I isozyme, which is absent in untransformed 3T3 cells, is not essential for the transformed phenotype of R3T3 cells. RII alpha-overexpressing R3T3 cells that are devoid of PKA-I continued to exhibit a transformed phenotype including anchorage-independent growth. Overexpression of RII alpha provides a genetic approach that may prove useful in demonstrating specific functions for the two PKA isozymes in cAMP-dependent signal transduction pathways.

Triplet repeat expansion in myotonic dystrophy alters the adjacent chromatin structure.

Myotonic dystrophy is caused by an expansion of a CTG triplet repeat sequence in the 3' noncoding region of a protein kinase gene, yet the mechanism by which the triplet repeat expansion causes disease remains unknown. This report demonstrates that a DNase I hypersensitive site is positioned 3' of the triplet repeat in the wild-type allele in both fibroblasts and skeletal muscle cells. In three unrelated individuals with myotonic dystrophy that have large expansions of the triplet repeat, the allele with the triplet repeat expansion exhibited both overall DNase I resistance and inaccessibility of nucleases to the adjacent hypersensitive site. These results indicate that the triplet repeat expansion alters the adjacent chromatin structure, establishing a region of condensed chromatin, and suggests a molecular mechanism for myotonic dystrophy.

Hormonal activation of gene transcription in ras-transformed NIH3T3 cells overexpressing RII alpha and RII beta subunits of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase.

ras-Transformed NIH3T3 (R3T3) cells were transfected with expression vectors for the RII alpha and RII beta regulatory subunits of the type II isozyme of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, and the effects on gene activation by corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) were analyzed. In RII alpha and RII beta-overexpressing cells, type II isozyme levels were increased, and type I isozyme levels were eliminated, demonstrating that both RII regulatory subunits compete efficiently with RI for catalytic subunit. The type II isozyme separated into three peaks on high performance liquid chromatography, referred to as A, B, and C. Western blot analysis strongly suggests that peak A and peak C correspond to holoenzymes containing RII beta and RII alpha, respectively. Overexpression of RII alpha resulted in the loss of peak A and a dramatic reduction in RII beta protein with no change in RII beta mRNA, indicating that the level of RII beta protein is controlled posttranscriptionally and that RII beta protein may become unstable when displaced from C. The role of type I and II kinases in transcriptional activation was investigated by comparing the response of control and RII expressing clones to site-selective cAMP analogs and the hormones, CRF and PGE1. The site-selective analogs demonstrated that either type I or type II kinase could activate the cAMP-responsive alpha-subunit promoter. The response to various concentrations of CRF or PGE1 was identical in control cells and transfected clones containing very little type I kinase. These experiments suggest that in the CRF and PGE1 response pathways leading to gene induction, the magnitude and sensitivity of the response are not influenced by the presence or absence of type I cAMP-dependent protein kinase.

Inactivation of MyoD-mediated expression of p21 in tumor cell lines.

The basic helix-loop-helix protein MyoD induces muscle structural gene expression and cell cycle withdrawal in many nontransformed cell lines. We show that MyoD activation of transcription of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 does not require synthesis of an intermediary protein. In most of the rhabdomyosarcoma and other solid tumor cell lines that we analyzed, p21 levels were abnormally low and correlated with the combined inactivity of MyoD and p53, two known transcriptional activators of p21. Loss of MyoD activation of p21 transcription correlated with the failure to arrest in G1, and expression of p21 caused accumulation of cells in G1, further supporting a role for p21 in MyoD-induced cell cycle arrest. Finally, different tumor types have inactivated distinct factors necessary for p21 expression, because p21 expression was reconstituted in hybrid cell lines. We propose that p21 integrates growth-inhibitory signals from independent p53 and basic helix-loop-helix pathways, and that in the majority of tumor cell lines, both pathways are abrogated.