title: Isolation and characterization of the human and mouse homologues (SUPT4H and Supt4h) of the yeast SPT4 gene.
abstract: To study gene regulation mediated by chromatin in mammals, we isolated the human (SUPT4H) and murine (Supt4h) counterparts of the yeast gene encoding SPT4; the product of this gene presumably interacts with the products of the mammalian homologues (which we have also cloned) of yeast SPT5 and SPT6, thereby modulating chromatin formation and activity. We isolated two different sized human SUPT4H cDNA clones (1464 and 728 nt) and one murine Supt4h (688 nt) cDNA clone; all three encode the same 117-amino-acid protein with conservation of the zinc finger motif found in SPT4. Conservation of this zinc finger motif from yeast to mouse and human implies functional importance. Although the overall sequence homology at the DNA level between the human 728-nt transcript and the murine 688-nt transcript is only 78.4%, the DNA sequence homology is 97.7% within the coding region. At the protein level, the amino acid sequences of the translated murine Supt4h and the human SUPT4H gene products are identical. The likely functional copy of SUPT4H, which has at least two introns, maps to human chromosome 17, with candidate intronless pseudogenes on chromosomes 2, 12, and 20. Buttressing the hypothesis that this is a gene required constitutively, both the human SUPT4H transcripts and the murine Supt4h transcript are expressed widely, although not at equal levels (e.g., such as most histones), in all fetal and adult tissues that we examined.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, USA.
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.forename: S Q
authors.initials: SQ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Smithivas
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Crombez
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akhtar
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Im
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Greenfield
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramamoorthy
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Van Keuren
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Blackburn
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Kurnit
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002886:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 17; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D005333:Fetus; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D015870:Gene Expression; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns; D008322:Mammals; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D009928:Organ Specificity; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D011544:Pseudogenes; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics*; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D035602:Transcriptional Elongation Factors; D016335:Zinc Fingers
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins; C080991:SPT4 protein, S cerevisiae; C481011:SUPT4H1 protein, human; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; C484413:Supt4h protein, mouse; D035602:Transcriptional Elongation Factors