High molecular weight RNA containing histone messenger in the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus

Spinelli, Giovanni; Melli, Marialuisa; Arnold, Eva; Casano, Caterina; Gianguzza, Fabrizio; Ciaccio, Mirella

doi:10.1016/0022-2836(80)90299-5

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Gall, personal communication). The size of this repeat unit (9,000 base pairs) seems to exclude the possibility that the TUs described here represent the synthesis of a common precursor to four or five different histone mRNAs as reported for HeLa cells and sea urchin (29,40) as well as Triturus (39). It also indicates that the TUs discussed here do not code for precursors of histone mRNAs separately initiated on the individual histone genes (21) .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Identification of a novel class of tandemly repeated genes transcribed on lampbrush chromosomes of Pleurodeles waltlii.

Scheer¹

1981

The Journal of Cell Biology

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Electron microscope preparations of lampbrush chromosomes from oocytes of Pleurodeles walthi have revealed a new class of tandemly repeated genes. These genes are highly active, as judged by the close spacing of nascent transcripts . They occur in clusters of >100 copies and are transcribed in units containing roughly 940 base pairs of DNA that are separated by nontranscribed spacers of an estimated DNA content of 2,410 base pairs. The size and the pattern of arrangement of these transcription units can not be correlated with any of the repetitious genes so far described.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Identification of a novel class of tandemly repeated genes transcribed on lampbrush chromosomes of Pleurodeles waltlii.

Scheer¹

1981

The Journal of Cell Biology

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“…Collection of gametes from P. liuidus, culture, and recovery of embryos at selected stages of development were carried out as previously described (Spinelli et al, 1980). Total RNA was extracted from eggs, intestine, and embryos by homogenization in 7 M urea, 2% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), 0.35 M NaC1, 10 mM Tris-HC1, pH 8.0 (Holmes and Bonner, 1973) and repeated phenol-chloroform extractions.…”

Section: Materials and Methods Embryo Culture And Rna Extractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DNA sequence and pattern of expression of the sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) α‐tubulin genes

Gianguzza

Bernardo

Sollazzo

et al. 1989

Molecular Reproduction Devel

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To study the molecular aspects of the regulation of transcription of a multigene family, we have isolated and sequenced cDNA and genomic clones coding for the alpha-tubulin of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus. Two cDNA clones, P alpha 10 and P alpha 4, contain respectively the coding information for 391 C-terminal and for 338 N-terminal amino acids of the 452 residues that constitute the complete protein. They show silent nucleotide substitutions only, suggesting that P alpha 10 and P alpha 4 represent the cloned copies of two allelic gene transcripts, which encode for two alpha-tubulin isoforms with identical amino acid sequence in the region of the overlap. The comparison of the predicted amino acid sequence of the composite P alpha 4-10 and of the mouse M alpha-6 (Villasante et al., Mol Cell Biol 1986; 6:2409-2419) reveals a conservation of 97% between the two polypeptides. By RNA blotting hybridization six major alpha-tubulin transcripts were identified. Two, of 3.5 kb and 2.0 kb, are expressed in the unfertilized eggs and during early cleavage. The other two maternal mRNAs, of 2.4 kb and 1.8 kb, are expressed in both early and late cleavage embryos, but in the intestine the 1.8 kb RNA, which specifically reacted with the 3' specific probe of the P alpha 10 cDNA, is the only transcript detected. Finally, the 1.5 kb and 1.9 kb mRNAs represent the transcription of stage- and tissue-specific genes, respectively. In fact, the former becomes detectable at blastula stage and accumulates during late development, whereas the latter is found in the testis only. The sequence data of the 3' terminus of the alpha-3 genomic clone suggests that it encodes for a divergent alpha-tubulin, and it most probably corresponds to the testis-specific gene.

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“…Evidence for their existence has been given by Kunkel et al. (20) and Spinelli et al (35). In the first of these reports, large histone-specific RNAs were detected at a later stage in sea urchin development.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…On the other hand, our results could suggest altemative explanations for these findings. First, the presence of transcripts that hybridize to the 5' spacer U (noncoding) strand indicates the difficulties that may be involved when assays for rare transcripts are employed, using techniques, such as hybridization against DBM-paper blots, that do not easily allow a direct analysis of hybridization fidelity (35). Second, a method has been developed in this laboratory to characterized histone gene variants that are not part of the main repeating cluster(s) (7; R. E. Maxson, G. Childs, T. Mohun, and L. H. Kedes, manuscript in preparation).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Monocistronic transcription is the physiological mechanism of sea urchin embryonic histone gene expression.

Mauron¹,

Levy²,

Childs³

et al. 1981

Mol. Cell. Biol.

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We have examined histone gene expression during the early stages of sea urchin embryogenesis. The five histone genes expressed at that time are contained in tandem repetitive segments. It has been suggested that adjacent coding regions and their intervening spacer sequences are transcribed into large polycistronic messenger ribonucleic acid (RNA) precursors. We have subcloned into pBR322 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences mapping either in the coding region, the 5' spacer, or the 3' spacer of the H2B histone gene. These clones were used to produce radioiodinated hybridization probes. We measured the steady-state quantity of H2B messenger RNA as well as spacer-specific RNA in the total RNA from embryos taken at various stages of development from fertilization to hatching of blastulae (0 to 22 h post-fertilization). Small amounts of RNA hybridizing to both spacer probes could be found. However, we show that these RNAs form mismatched hybrids with the spacer DNA and therefore cannot originate from the spacers present in the histone genes. We conclude that there is no detectable transcription of the spacer regions on either side of the H2B histone gene. The detection limit for RNA complementary to the 5' spacer sequence corresponds to a maximum of about three RNA molecules per cell, an amount shown to be far less than the projected steady-state pool size of a putative polycistronic transcript, if such a precursor were to be the obligatory transcript of the histone genes. (This conclusion was derived by using the known rates of production of H2B mRNA throughout early development [R. E. Maxson and F. H. Wilt, Dev. Biol., in press].) The physiologically relevant transcript of the histone genes in early development is therefore monocistronic and probably identical to the messenger RNA itself.The histone genes transcribed during the rapid cleavage stage of echinoderm embryogenesis are members of a moderately repetitive family of tandemly arrayed genetic units each of which contains, on the same deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) strand, coding sequences for the five classes of histone messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) interspersed with spacer DNA (see Fig.

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High molecular weight RNA containing histone messenger in the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus

Cited by 16 publications

References 30 publications

Identification of a novel class of tandemly repeated genes transcribed on lampbrush chromosomes of Pleurodeles waltlii.

Identification of a novel class of tandemly repeated genes transcribed on lampbrush chromosomes of Pleurodeles waltlii.

DNA sequence and pattern of expression of the sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) α‐tubulin genes

Monocistronic transcription is the physiological mechanism of sea urchin embryonic histone gene expression.

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