title: Reconstitution of protein kinase A regulation of the rat prolactin promoter in HeLa nonpituitary cells: identification of both GHF-1/Pit-1-dependent and -independent mechanisms.
abstract: Expression of the rat PRL (rPRL) gene is highly restricted to pituitary lactotroph cells and is induced by the cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) pathway. Current data indicate that this PKA effect requires at least one of the redundant pituitary-specific elements of the proximal rPRL promoter, suggesting the involvement of the pituitary-specific transcription factor, GHF-1/Pit-1. To directly determine whether GHF-1 is necessary and sufficient to mediate the PKA activation of the rPRL promoter, we established a cotransfection reconstitution assay whereby the activity of an intact and site-specific mutants of the (-425 to +73) rPRL promoter-luciferase reporter gene was reconstituted by cotransfecting expression vectors encoding for either the PKA beta catalytic subunit, GHF-1, or both, into HeLa nonpituitary cells. Cotransfection of PKA beta alone significantly stimulated rPRL promoter activity in HeLa cells in a GHF-1-independent manner, and this PKA beta effect was mapped to the most proximal GHF-1 site [footprint (FP) I; -67/-36]. Site-specific alterations of either FP II (-130/-120), or of the basal transcription element (BTE; -112/-80), did not significantly affect the PKA beta response. As expected, the transactivation effect of cotransfected GHF-1 mapped to the GHF-1/Pit-1 binding sites, FP I and/or FP III, of the rPRL promoter. Finally, cotransfection of PKA beta and GHF-1 resulted in a marked synergistic response of the rPRL promoter, and this response also localized to the FP I site. These data confirm not only that GHF-1/Pit-1 and the FP I site are involved in mediating the PKA response, but also imply that a distinct and possibly ubiquitous factor is involved by binding to FP I and functionally interacting with GHF-1 to modulate PKA beta regulation of the rPRL promoter.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Colorado Cancer Center, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver 80262, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rajnarayan
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chiono
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gutierrez-Hartmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017868:Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinases / Q000502:physiology*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006367:HeLa Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011388:Prolactin / Q000235:genetics*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D051381:Rats; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D050817:Transcription Factor Pit-1; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C494187:POU1F1 protein, human; C494186:Pou1f1 protein, rat; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D050817:Transcription Factor Pit-1; D014157:Transcription Factors; D011388:Prolactin; D017868:Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinases