Abstract
Expression of the pX gene products (p40(tax), p27(rex) and p21(X-III) of human T cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), which is known to be a causative agent of adult T cell lymphoma/leukemia, induces expression of the interleukin-2 receptor α chain (IL-2Rα) on infected T cells. Comparison of IL-2Rα promoter activities has revealed that the transcriptional activation of the promoter alone cannot explain the large numbers of IL-2Rα expressed on HTLV-1 infected cells. We found that the rates of the IL-2Rα mRNA degradation were greatly reduced in pX-positive cells as compared with pX-negative cells. Simultaneous transfection of the expression vector plasmid containing IL-2Rα cDNA and similar plasmids containing various pX sequences showed that p27(rex) elongated the half life of IL-2Rα mRNA. As p27(rex) did not affect the transport of the IL-2Rα mRNA from nucleus to cytoplasm, prolongation of the IL-2Rα mRNA half life by p27(rex) is ascribed to stabilization of the mRNA. Experiments using deletion mutants and chimeric constructs of the IL-2Rα cDNA demonstrated that the coding sequence but not the 5' or 3' untranslated region of the IL-2Rα mRNA sequence is responsible for its protection by p27(rex).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4161-4166 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | EMBO Journal |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| Publication status | Published - 1990 Nov 29 |
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Keywords
- coding sequence
- interleukin-2 receptor α chain
- mRNA regulation
- p27(rex)
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neuroscience(all)
- Molecular Biology
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
- Immunology and Microbiology(all)