title: Organization and myogenic restricted expression of the murine serum response factor gene. A role for autoregulation.
abstract: Serum response factor (SRF), a member of an ancient family of DNA-binding proteins, is generally assumed to be a ubiquitous transcription factor involved in regulating growth factor-responsive genes. However, avian SRF was recently shown (Croissant, J. D., Kim, J.-H., Eichele, G., Goering, L., Lough, J., Prywes, R., and Schwartz, R. J. (1996) Dev. Biol. 177, 250-264) to be preferentially expressed in myogenic lineages and is required for regulating post-replicative muscle gene expression. Given the central importance of SRF for the muscle tissue-restricted expression of the striated alpha-actin gene family, we wanted to determine how SRF might contribute to this muscle-restricted expression. Here we have characterized the murine SRF genomic locus, which has seven exons interrupted by six introns, with the entire locus spanning 11 kilobases. Murine SRF transcripts were processed to two 3'-untranslated region polyadenylation signals, yielding 4.5- and 2.5-kilobase mRNA species. Murine SRF mRNA levels were the highest in adult skeletal and cardiac muscle, but barely detected in liver, lung, and spleen tissues. During early mouse development, in situ hybridization analysis revealed enrichment of SRF transcripts in the myotomal portion of somites, the myocardium of the heart, and the smooth muscle media of vessels of mouse embryos. Likewise, murine SRF promoter activity was tissue-restricted, being 80-fold greater in primary skeletal myoblasts than in liver-derived HepG2 cells. In addition, SRF promoter activity increased 6-fold when myoblasts withdrew from the cell cycle and fused into differentiated myotubes. A 310-base pair promoter fragment depended upon multiple intact serum response elements in combination with Sp1 sites for maximal myogenic restricted activity. Furthermore, cotransfected SRF expression vector stimulated SRF promoter transcription, whereas dominant-negative SRF mutants blocked SRF promoter activity, demonstrating a positive role for an SRF-dependent autoregulatory loop.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Belaguli
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Schildmeyer
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Schwartz
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D004475:Ectoderm / Q000378:metabolism; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D005091:Exons; D015698:Genomic Library; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000378:metabolism*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism*; D009420:Nervous System / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D009928:Organ Specificity; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D026362:Serum Response Factor; D016385:TATA Box; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014981:Xenopus
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D026362:Serum Response Factor; D014157:Transcription Factors