Satellite DNA from the brine shrimp Artemia affects the expression of a flanking gene in yeast.
We have previously revealed that in the brine shrimp Artemia franciscana an AluI DNA family of repeats, 113 bp in length, is the major component of the constitutive heterochromatin and that this repetitive DNA shows a stable curvature that confers a solenoidal geometry on the double helix in vitro. It was suggested that this particular structure may play a relevant role in determining the condensation of the heterochromatin. In this report we have cloned hexamers of highly-repetitive sequence (AluI-satellite DNA) in proximity to a yeast lacZ reporter gene on a plasmid. We find that the expression of the reporter gene is affected by the presence of this DNA in a dose- and orientation-dependent manner in the yeast, S. cerevisiae. We show that this effect is not dependent on under-replication or re-arrangements of the repetitive DNA in the cell but is due to decreased expression of the reporter gene. Our results indicate that the AluI-satellite DNA of Artemia per se is able to influence gene expression.
Maiorano
D
D
Università di Milano, III Facoltà di Scienze, Varese, Italy.
Cece
R
R
Badaracco
G
G
D000818:Animals; D001156:Artemia / Q000235:genetics*; D004276:DNA, Satellite / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D005800:Genes, Fungal / Q000502:physiology; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000502:physiology; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics*; D001616:beta-Galactosidase / Q000378:metabolism
D004276:DNA, Satellite; D001616:beta-Galactosidase