Structure and expression pattern of Oct4 gene are conserved in vole Microtus rossiaemeridionalis

Sergey P Medvedev,Suren M Zakian,Eugene A Elisaphenko,Tatyana B Nesterova,Neil Brockdorff,Alexander I Shevchenko

doi:10.1186/1471-2164-9-162

Sergey P Medvedev, Suren M Zakian + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-9-162

Copy DOI

Abstract

BackgroundOct4 is a POU-domain transcriptional factor which is essential for maintaining pluripotency in several mammalian species. The mouse, human, and bovine Oct4 orthologs display a high conservation of nucleotide sequence and genomic organization.ResultsHere we report an isolation of a common vole (Microtus rossiaemeridionalis) Oct4 ortholog. Organization and exon-intron structure of vole Oct4 gene are similar to the gene organization in other mammalian species. It consists of five exons and a regulatory region including the minimal promoter, proximal and distal enhancers. Promoter and regulatory regions of the vole Oct4 gene also display a high similarity to the corresponding regions of Oct4 in other mammalian species, and are active during the transient transfection within luciferase reporter constructs into mouse P19 embryonic carcinoma cells and TG-2a embryonic stem cells. The vole Oct4 gene expression is detectable starting from the morula stage and until day 17 of embryonic development.ConclusionGenomic organization of this gene and its intron-exon structure in vole are identical to those in all previously studied species: it comprises five exons and the regulatory region containing several conserved elements. The activity of the Oct4 gene in vole, as well as in mouse, is confined only to pluripotent cells.

Highlights

Oct4 is a POU-domain transcriptional factor which is essential for maintaining pluripotency in several mammalian species
Nucleotide sequence, exon-intron structure, and expression of M. rossiaemeridionalis Oct4 gene Clone containing genomic sequence of vole Oct4 was isolated via screening of the M. rossiaemeridionalis genomic phage library
10315 bp were identified, where five exons and the regulatory region of Oct4 gene were conditionally mapped based on the homology to mouse Oct4 gene sequence

Summary

Introduction

Oct is a POU-domain transcriptional factor which is essential for maintaining pluripotency in several mammalian species. The mouse, human, and bovine Oct orthologs display a high conservation of nucleotide sequence and genomic organization. The POU family includes transcription factors containing the POU domain and regulating transcription via binding to an octamer motif located in the promoter or enhancer regions of target genes [1,2]. An important role of Oct factor in sustaining pluripotency of preimplantation embryonic cells and mouse embryonic stem cells (ES cells) has been convincingly demonstrated using the directed mutagenesis and RNA interference [3,4,5]. The mouse, human, and bovine Oct orthologs have a highly conserved nucleotide sequence and genomic organization [6,7,8]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion