The Locus Control Region (LCR) requires intronic elements within beta-globin transgenes to direct high level expression at all ectopic integration sites. However, these essential intronic elements cannot be transmitted through retrovirus vectors and their deletion may compromise the therapeutic potential for gene therapy. Here, we systematically regenerate functional beta-globin intron 2 elemen...

Somatic hypermutation (SHM) of immunoglobulin genes is initiated by activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) in activated B cells. This process is strictly dependent on transcription. Hence, cis-acting transcriptional control elements have been proposed to target SHM to immunoglobulin loci. The Mus musculus Igκ locus is regulated by the intronic enhancer (iE/MAR) and the 3' enhancer (3'E), a...

The essential proteins NS1 and NS2 of minute virus of mice are encoded by mRNAs R1 and R2, respectively. R2 is derived from R1 by excision of a large intron and thus splicing governs the relative ratios of NS1 and NS2. Excision of the large intron utilizes a nonconsensus 5' donor site. We identified a U-rich and A-rich intronic sequence immediately downstream of the nonconsensus 5' donor site t...

Hereditary fructose intolerance (HFI) is a metabolic disorder caused by enzymic deficiency of aldolase B, a genetically distinct cytosolic isoenzyme expressed exclusively in liver, kidney, and intestine. The molecular basis of this enzyme defect has been investigated in three affected individuals from a nonconsanguineous kindred, in whom fructose-l-phosphate aldolase activities in liver or inte...

The immunoglobulin heavy chain locus undergoes a series of DNA rearrangements and modifications to achieve the construction and expression of individual antibody heavy chain genes in B cells. These events affect variable regions, through VDJ joining and subsequent somatic hypermutation, and constant regions through class switch recombination (CSR). Levels of IgH expression are also regulated du...

A DNA region located at around -200 bp in the 5' flanking region (region D) of the human brain-type fructose-bisphosphate aldolase (aldolase C) gene has been analysed. We show by transient transfection assay and electrophoretic-mobility-shift assay (EMSA) that the binding of transcriptional activators to region D is much more efficient (80% versus 30%) in human neuroblastoma cells (SKNBE) than ...

A genome-wide association study had showed G-protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 (GRK5) rs10886471 was related to the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) through upregulated GRK5 mRNA expression. Rs10886471 is located in the intron region of GRK5. However, the mechanism by which intronic SNP affects gene expression remains unclear, whether the effect on gene expression depends on the intronic...

Aldolase B is an enzyme of the glycolytic pathway whose activity and mRNA levels in the liver fluctuate according to dietary status. Both the enzyme activity and the mRNA concentration decline during fasting and increase four- to eightfold upon refeeding of a carbohydrate-rich diet. The mechanism, however, of the mRNA induction remains unknown. To elucidate the mechanisms that regulate this ind...