The maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT), which controls maternal signaling to synthesize zygotic gene products, promotes the preimplantation development of mouse zygotes two-cell stage. Our previous study reported that granzyme g (Gzmg), a serine-type protease, is required for MZT. In this study, we further identified factors regulate Gzmg promoter activity in zygote stage embryos. A full-leng...

Abstract Background Flowering is an important inflection point in the transformation from vegetative to reproductive growth, and premature bolting severely decreases crop yield quality. Results In this study, a stable early-bolting mutant, ebm3 , was identified ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)-mutagenized population of Chinese cabbage doubled haploid (DH) line ‘FT’. Compared with ‘FT’, showed early...

The catalase-encoding gene (catB) is expressed strongly in Aspergillus oryzae. To identify the transcription regulatory elements involved in strong expression, we did promoter deletion analysis using beta-glucuronidase (GUS) as a reporter and an electrophoretic gel mobility shift assay (EMSA) systematically. The deletion 200-bp sequence from -1,000 to -800 in the 1,400-bp catB promoter caused a...

Apolipoprotein E (apoE) and its receptor, very low density lipoprotein receptor (VLDLR), are involved in fat accumulation in adipocytes. Here, we investigated the effect of a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) gamma agonist, rosiglitazone, on regulation of VLDLR expression both in white adipose tissue (WAT) of obese mice and in cultured adipocytes. Furthermore, to determine wheth...

A cell line (HRRT) derived from a hereditary renal rat tumor has been used in an assay for initiators and promoters of carcinogenesis based on attachment-independent survival in aggregates. Treatment with single noncytotoxic doses of the carcinogens urethan (1 mM), N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (30 microM), and benzo(a)pyrene (0.2 microM) for 1 hr did not affect survival of HRRT cells in the aggregate...

The human angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor gene was isolated and its promoter function analyzed by deletion mutant promoter/luciferase constructs in transfected Cos 7 cells. We found that epidermal growth factor enhanced the human AT1 promoter activity twofold to threefold. The region between -227 and -366 bp from the 5' end of the cDNA was mapped for a base sequence responsive to the epide...

Recombination activating gene-1 (RAG-1) and RAG-2 are expressed in lymphoid cells undergoing the antigen receptor gene rearrangement. A study of the regulation of the mouse RAG-2 promoter showed that the lymphocyte-specific promoter activity is conferred 80 nucleotide (nt) upstream of RAG-2. Using an electrophoretic mobility shift assay, it was shown that a B-cell-specific transcription protein...

Bioluminescence reporter proteins have been widely used in the development of tools for monitoring biological events in living cells. In this study, we describe the development of a reporter system with secreted Cypridina noctiluca luciferase (CLuc) for a pharmacological assay that is based on targeted promoter activity. A model cell line was established with Rat-1 fibroblasts expressing CLuc d...

Microarray studies have identified many genes that are down-regulated in uterine leiomyoma compared with myometrium, including early growth response gene-1 (EGR1). However, the mechanisms underlying coordinated down-regulation of this gene cohort remain unknown. To address the transcriptional role of EGR1 in leiomyoma, EGR1 binding to promoter sequences on target genes was assessed by chromatin...