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PMID: 2538720 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

UbiA, the major polyubiquitin locus in Caenorhabditis elegans, has unusual structural features and is constitutively expressed.

Molecular and cellular biology ·Vol. 9 ·No. 1 ·1989-01-00 ·Pages 268-77

Graham RW, Jones D, Candido EP

Abstract

Ubiquitin is a multifunctional 76-amino-acid protein which plays critical roles in many aspects of cellular metabolism. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the major source of ubiquitin RNA is the polyubiquitin locus, UbiA. UbiA is transcribed as a polycistronic mRNA which contains 11 tandem repeats of ubiquitin sequence and possesses a 2-amino-acid carboxy-terminal extension on the final repeat. The UbiA locus possesses several unusual features not seen in the ubiquitin genes of other organisms studied to date. Mature UbiA mRNA acquires a 22-nucleotide leader sequence via a trans-splicing reaction involving a 100-nucleotide splice leader RNA derived from a different chromosome. UbiA is also unique among known polyubiquitin genes in containing four cis-spliced introns within its coding sequence. Thus, UbiA is one of a small class of genes found in higher eucaryotes whose heterogeneous nuclear RNA undergoes both cis and trans splicing. The putative promoter region of UbiA contains a number of potential regulatory elements: (i) a cytosine-rich block, (ii) two sequences resembling the heat shock regulatory element, and (iii) a palindromic sequence with homology to the DNA-binding site of the mammalian steroid hormone receptor. The expression of the UbiA gene has been studied under various heat shock conditions and has been monitored during larval moulting and throughout the major stages of development. These studies indicate that the expression of the UbiA gene is not inducible by acute or chronic heat shock and does not appear to be under nutritional or developmental regulation in C. elegans.

MeSH Terms
Animals Base Sequence Caenorhabditis/genetics Clone Cells DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics,metabolism Electronic Data Processing Gene Expression Regulation Immunoblotting Molecular Sequence Data Promoter Regions, Genetic RNA, Messenger/analysis Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid Ubiquitins/genetics
Chemicals
DNA-Binding Proteins RNA, Messenger Ubiquitins
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Graham R W
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Jones D
Candido E P
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Article Info
Journal
Molecular and cellular biology
Abbr.
Mol Cell Biol
ISSN
0270-7306
DOI
10.1128/mcb.9.1.268-277.1989
Published
1989-01-00
Pages
268-77
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
8109087
PMCID
PMC362169
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
M23433
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/mcb.9.1.268-277.1989 PMC Full Text View journal details
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