title: Alternative splicing variants of IRF-1 lacking exons 7, 8, and 9 in cervical cancer.
abstract: The two previously identified major splice variants of interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1) do not appear to affect IRF-1-mediated gene activation. We searched for additional splice variants and examined their effect on wild-type IRF-1. RT-PCR experiments using normal and malignant human cervical tissue samples revealed five variants lacking some combination of exons 7, 8, and 9; their expression levels were higher in the malignant samples. These variants had predicted deletions of the functional domain or truncated protein isoforms, had different transcriptional activities, and attenuated transcriptional activity of IRF-1. Unlike the cell cycle-dependent IRF-1 transcript, the splice variant mRNA levels remained consistent throughout the cell cycle. The variant proteins were more stable than the IRF-1 protein, which may explain the strong inhibition of IRF-1 transcription in the presence of relatively small quantities of the alternative transcripts. In conclusion, alternative splicing in exons 7, 8, and 9 is an important mechanism for negatively regulating IRF-1 in cervical cancer.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Therapy Research Center, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul 135-710, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Eun-Ju
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Minwha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jo
authors.forename: Junsoo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Je-Ho
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000502:physiology; D002584:Cervix Uteri / Q000737:chemistry; D005091:Exons / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D050856:Interferon Regulatory Factor-1 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000502:physiology; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D050856:Interferon Regulatory Factor-1; D012333:RNA, Messenger