The avian skeletal alpha-actin gene was used as a template for construction of a myogenic expression vector that was utilized to direct expression of a human IGF-I cDNA in cultured muscle cells and in striated muscle of transgenic mice. The proximal promoter region, together with the first intron and 1.8 kilobases of 3'-noncoding flanking sequence of the avian skeletal alpha-actin gene directed...

About half of all genes have a CpG island surrounding the promoter and transcription start site. Most promoter CpG islands are normally unmethylated in all tissues, irrespective of the expression level of the associated gene. Establishment of the appropriate patterns of DNA methylation in the genome is essential for normal development and patterns of gene expression. Aberrant methylation of CpG...

Identification of the regulators of smooth muscle specific gene expression is critical for understanding smooth muscle cell (SMC) differentiation and the alterations in SMC phenotype seen in vascular diseases. Previous studies have identified that a 2-bp mutation in a conserved cis-acting element (TGTTTATC) in the promoter of the chicken smooth muscle (SM) alpha-actin gene abolished nuclear fac...

A cDNA for fascin, an actin-bundling protein in echinoderms, has been cloned, sequenced, and expressed. The predicted mass of the protein is approximately 55 kDa, similar to that observed for fascin purified from sea urchin eggs. Bacterially expressed fascin reacts with antibodies prepared against sea urchin egg fascin. Fascin has a strong sequence similarity to the singed gene (sn) product in ...

Highly similar gene sequences of the 5' region of the large subunit (LSU) are commonly interpreted to predict the organism's identity. However, it was recognised that closely related taxa do not always show sufficiently diverged D1/D2 LSU sequences to differentiate between them. The effectiveness of species separation using D1/D2 LSU sequences, small subunit (SSU) sequences and actin gene seque...

Nuclear transcribed genes produce mRNA transcripts destined to travel from the site of transcription to the cytoplasm for protein translation. Certain transcripts can be further localized to specific cytoplasmic regions. We examined the life cycle of a transcribed beta-actin mRNA throughout gene expression and localization, in a cell system that allows the in vivo detection of the gene locus, t...

Proper neural circuitry requires that growth cones, motile tips of extending axons, respond to molecular guidance cues expressed in the developing organism. However, it is unclear how guidance cues modify the cytoskeleton to guide growth cone pathfinding. Here, we show acute treatment with two attractive guidance cues, nerve growth factor (NGF) and netrin-1, for embryonic dorsal root ganglion a...

Cortactin is a c-src substrate associated with sites of dynamic actin assembly at the leading edge of migrating cells. We previously showed that cortactin binds to Arp2/3 complex, the essential molecular machine for nucleating actin filament assembly. In this study, we demonstrate that cortactin activates Arp2/3 complex based on direct visualization of filament networks and pyrene actin assays....

In order to elucidate mechanisms involved in striated muscle contractile protein isoform expression, we have defined regulatory elements in the cardiac actin gene necessary for postnatal expression at the level of transcript accumulation in the heart and hindlimb muscles of transgenic mice. During this developmental period in the rodent, cardiac actin expression essentially remains constant in ...

The genus Phoma Sacc. consists of important fungal plant pathogenic species occurring on economically important cultivated crops in spite of many other saprobic species. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify 35 isolates of Phoma species and related taxa collected from different hosts by means of morphological and molecular characters. Multi-locus phylogenetic analyses based on ITS1-5.8S-I...