ODC Gene Research Articles

Mechanism of regulation of ornithine decarboxylase gene expression by asparagine in a variant mouse neuroblastoma cell line.

We have developed a clonal variant, named DF-40, from the N2a mouse neuroblastoma cell line, which has the ornithine decarboxylase (L-ornithine carboxylase, EC 4.1.1.17, ODC) gene amplified. When DF-40 cells were maintained in a simple salt glucose medium (e.g. Earle's blanced salt solution), L-asparagine alone was sufficient to induce a maximal increase in ODC activity. The increase in ODC activity correlated well with an increase in the amount of ODC protein. Northern blot analysis indicated that asparagine caused a 12-15-fold increase in ODC mRNA. The half-life of ODC mRNA induced by asparagine in DF-40 cells changed from more than 8 h to about 25 min upon removal of asparagine from the culture in the presence of actinomycin D. In contrast, asparagine had little or no effect on the rate of transcription of the ODC gene. Pulse labeling of cells for 15 min with [35S]methionine showed a 90-140-fold increase in the synthesis of ODC protein after 4-8 h of incubation with asparagine. The removal of asparagine from the medium resulted in a rapid loss of ODC protein with a half-life as short as 12 min. The presence of asparagine increased the half-life of ODC protein by 3-5-fold when measured in the presence of cycloheximide. Taken together, our data show that asparagine induced ODC gene expression in DF-40 cells, primarily by post-transcriptional stabilization of ODC mRNA. In addition, asparagine specifically stimulated the synthesis and suppressed the degradation of ODC protein.

Transcription‐Dependent and ‐Independent Induction of Cerebral Ornithine Decarboxylase

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC; EC 4.1.1.17) is a highly inducible, rate-limiting enzyme of the polyamine pathway. We have studied the mechanisms that lead to the induction of ODC activity in response to electrical stimulation in three brain regions. Hippocampal ODC activity was found to exhibit much larger elevations than that of the neocortex and the cerebellum. The levels of ODC gene expression were also followed to examine its relationship to the existing regional differences in ODC activity. In the neocortex, there was an elevation of both the ODC mRNA and enzyme activity. However, the hippocampal ODC mRNA level was not increased by electroconvulsive shock. Furthermore, the effects of hormonal changes and seizures on these regional differences in ODC induction were also examined. Adrenalectomy did not affect ODC activity, but pretreatment with the anticonvulsant MK-801 caused a depression of the induced levels of enzyme activity. Our data suggest that ODC activity in all the brain regions studied is directly elevated by electrically stimulated seizures. However, this induced ODC activity may or may not involve enhanced gene expression.

Differentiation of a mouse neuroblastoma variant cell line whose ornithine decar☐ylase gene has been amplified

Differentiation of mouse neuroblastoma cells has been shown to be accompanied by changes in polyamine metabolism and a decrease in polyamine content. We have previously shown that α-difluoromethyl ornithine, a suicide inhibitor of ornithine decar☐ylase (ODC, EC 4.1.1.17) and suboptimal concentrations of dibutyryl cAMP (0.1 to 0.2 mM) are effective in inducing the differentiation of mouse Neuro-2a (N2a) neuroblastoma cells. Exogenously added putrescine or spermidine can block the action of DFMO and dibutyryl cAMP, suggesting that polyamines may play a regulatory role in neuroblastoma differentiation. We have now isolated from N2a cells a clonal variant line, DF-40, whose ODC gene has been amplified by 40-fold. The DF-40 cells overproduced the ODC enzyme and contained very high levels of putrescine, spermidine and spermine. Treatment of DF-40 cells with dibutyryl cAMP or DFMO/dibutyryl cAMP led to a more than 80% reduction in polyamine content. Such a decrease did not cause the DF-40 cells to differentiate. Polyamine content in the treated DF-40 cells was still comparable or higher than that in the undifferentiated N2a cells. In contrast, serum-deprivation induced full differentiation of DF-40 cells. Levels of polyamine in the differentiated DF-40 cells, however, were also found to be comparable to that in the undifferentiated N2a cells. Exogenously added polyamines could not block the differentiation of DF-40 cells induced by serum-deprivation, suggesting that the action of polyamines in regulating neuroblastoma differentiation may depend on the presence of serum factors.

The long leader sequence of the mouse ornithine decarboxylase mRNA, previously suspected to be a cloning artifact, is probably a product of recombination with a MuLV-like retrovirus

Sequence analysis of the first 549 nucleotides(nt) of the non-translated 5′ end of the cloned mouse ornithine decarboxylase (ODC; l-ornithine carboxy-lyase, EC 4.1.1.17)-encoding sequence shows that this sequence is closely related to nt 1946–1953 of Moloney murine leukemia virus (MuLV). The viral sequence, however, is oriented anti-sense relative to the ODC sequence. This orientation makes it unlikely to be a cloning artifact mediated by reverse transcriptase, but rather a recombination between genomic DNA and a MuLV-like provirus. In the cell line, from which the cDNA clone originated, Katz and Kahana [EMBO J. 8 (1989) 1163–1167] have shown that an intragenic deletion and amplification of the ODC gene had taken place. We believe that an additional recombination also has occurred in this cell line. The cDNA clone studied was obtained after selecting for high ODC expression. It is conceivable that the retroviral sequence contains an intragenic enhancer which is also functional in the anti-sense orientation. The inserted two contains two repeats which share homology with known enhancer elements. The reported recombination event shows that caution is needed when selective pressure is applied for the isolation and characterization of genes.

Certain changes in ornithine decarboxylase gene methylation accompany gene amplification

The ornithine decarboxylase (ODC; EC 4.1.1.17) gene in parental, dexamethasone-resistant and 2-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO)-resistant human IgG-myeloma-cell lines was studied with the aid of methylation-sensitive restriction endonucleases and probes recognizing different parts of the gene. In all cell lines the promoter region of the ODC gene appeared to be heavily methylated, whereas the first long intron was unmethylated. Methylation analyses of several clones from the parental cell line revealed that these cells are heterogeneous with respect to the methylation status of the ODC gene, whereas all clones from DFMO-resistant cell lines displayed the same methylation pattern. Two of the parental clones represented a hypomethylated type very close to that exclusively found among the DFMO-resistant clones with ODC gene amplification. This typical methylation pattern was due to decreased methylation of a few CCGG sequences in the 3'-flanking region of the gene. It is possible that this kind of hypomethylation favours the initiation of the gene-amplification process in certain individual cells. This hypothesis was supported by the finding that no hypomethylation was present in the ODC gene of another human myeloma cell line that had acquired resistance to DFMO without gene amplification. In a dexamethasone-resistant cell line that overproduced ODC mRNA at normal gene dosage there were some minor differences between the methylation pattern of the ODC gene of different clones, but no such hypomethylation could be found in clones from the parental cell line. In dexamethasone-resistant cells the ODC gene was hypomethylated around the two HpaII sites and three CfoI sites in the coding region and also, as well as in cells with amplified ODC sequences, in the 3'-flanking region of the gene. Some hypomethylation in the distant 5'-flanking region was also observed.

Glucocorticoids stimulate ornithine decarboxylase gene expression in pancreatic AR42J cells

The effects of dexamethasone on ornithine decarboxylase gene expression were examined in rat pancreatic AR42J cells. Dexamethasone increased ornithine decarboxylase activity and messenger RNA (mRNA) concentrations in a time-dependent manner, with a maximal effect at 12 hours (207% ± 63% and 327% ± 34% of control, respectively; n = 5). Ornithine decarboxylase mRNA levels returned to control values at 48 hours, whereas ornithine decarboxylase activity was decreased to 41% ± 8% of control (n = 3). Dexamethasone induction of ornithine decarboxylase mRNA was dose dependent, with half-maximal effects at 10−8mol/L (210% ± 20% of control; n = 4) and maximal effects at 10−7 mol/L (327% ± 26% of control; n = 4). The glucocorticoid antagonist RU 38486 blocked the dexamethasone effects in a dose-dependent manner, with maximal effects occurring at 10−7 mol/L (120% ± 18% of control; n = 3). When protein synthesis was blocked by addition of cycloheximide, ornithine decarboxylase mRNA levels remained unchanged in response to glucocorticoids, indicating a primary effect of dexamethasone. Furthermore, cycloheximide by itself had no significant effect on ornithine decarboxylase mRNA levels. Inhibition of transcription with actinomycin D showed a half-life for ornithine decarboxylase mRNA of approximately 240 minutes. Ornithine decarboxylase mRNA stability was not affected by dexamethasone pretreatment for 12 hours. Therefore, these data suggest that dexamethasone regulates ODC gene expression via glucocorticoid receptor-mediated gene transcription. Furthermore, translational mechanisms seem to be involved in glucocorticoid-regulated ornithine decarboxylase induction.

Effects of Butylated Hydroxyanisole on Ornithine Decarboxylase Activity and Its Gene Expression Induced by Phorbol Ester Tumor Promoter

Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is a phenolic antioxidant that has been found to suppress the activity of skin tumor promoters. In this study, we investigated the effect of BHA on the activity of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC, an indicator of tumor promotion) and its gene expression induced by 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) in mouse skin. TPA-induced ODC activity was markedly inhibited by the topical application of 55 mumol of BHA (the inhibition rate at 6 h was about 80%). In Northern and dot-blot analysis, the TPA-induced increase in ODC mRNA was shown to be markedly reduced by the same dose of BHA (the inhibition rate at 4 h was about 60%). These results suggest the involvement of a decrease in ODC gene expression in the mechanism of the inhibition of ODC activity by BHA.

Effect of adrenergic and Ca 2+ antagonists on increased ornithine decarboxylase expression in regenerating rat liver

Partial hepatectomy (PH) (70% resection) causes within 4 hr an accumulation of ornithine decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.17, ODC) mRNAs concomitant with an increase in ODC activity, maximum values being observed at 8 and 16 hr, respectively. In the early hours of hepatic regeneration, enhancement of transcriptional-rate of ODC gene, demonstrated by nuclear run-on analysis, can account for the accumulation of ODC mRNAs. The involvement of catecholamines in these processes is demonstrated by using prazosin and propranolol, specific antagonists of α 1 and β adrenoceptors, respectively. Prazosin reduces almost completely the rise of ODC activity at 4 hr, without affecting mRNA levels. At 16 hr, enzyme activity and mRNAs increase, however, over the values observed in regenerating liver of prazosin-untreated animals. These findings suggest that α 1-receptor activation triggers positive control signals for ODC gene expression at the early time of liver regeneration and, on the contrary, negative signals at later times by mainly post-transcriptional and transcriptional mechanisms, respectively. Propranolol reduces similarly the initial 4 hr-rise of ODC activity. These results indicate that activation of both α 1- and β-adrenoceptors causes the large increase in ODC activity. Pharmacological manipulation of intracellular Ca 2+ levels by verapamil, a Ca 2+-channel blocker, or neomycin, an inhibitor of Ca 2+ release from endogenous stores, diminishes ODC activity at 4 and 16 hr after PH. ODC mRNA levels, which are not modified at 4 hr, increase over the values of partially hepatectomized rat liver at 16 hr. Trifluoperazine inhibits both ODC activity and mRNA accumulation at the times studied. As a working hypothesis it is proposed that Ca 2+mediated processes induced by catecholamines are involved in ODC gene expression during the prereplicative phase of liver regeneration.

C-Ha-rasVal 12 oncogene-transformed NIH-3T3 fibroblasts display more decondensed nucleosomal organization than normal fibroblasts.

We have compared the nucleosomal organization of c-Ha-rasVal 12 oncogene-transformed NIH-3T3 fibroblasts with that of normal fibroblasts by using micrococcal nuclease (MNase) as a probe for the chromatin structure. The bulk chromatin from asynchronously and exponentially growing ras-transformed cells was much more sensitive to MNase digestion than chromatin from the normal cells. Southern hybridization analyses of the MNase digests with probes specific for the ornithine decarboxylase (odc) and c-myc genes showed that the coding and/or 3' end regions of these growth-inducible genes carry a nucleosomal organization both in ras-transformed and normal cells. Studies with cells synchronized by serum starvation showed that in both cell lines the nucleosomal organization of chromatin is relatively condensed at the quiescent state, becomes highly decondensed during the late G1 phase of the cell cycle, and starts again to condense during the S phase. However, in ras-transformed cells the decondensation state stayed much longer than in normal cells. Moreover, irrespective of the phase of the cell cycle the bulk chromatin as well as that of the odc and c-myc genes was more sensitive to MNase digestion in the ras-transformed cell than in the normal fibroblast. Decondensation of the chromatin was also observed in the normal c-Ha-ras protooncogene-transfected cells, but to a lesser extent than in the mutant ras-transformed cells. Whether the increased degree of chromatin decondensation plays a regulatory role in the increased expression of many growth-related genes in the ras-transformed cells remains an interesting object of further study.

Cloning and functional analysis of the rat ornithine decarboxylase-encoding gene

We have isolated a functional gene ( ODC) encoding rat ornithine decarboxylase (ODC; EC 4.1.1.17) from a partial rat liver genomic DNA bank. The entire gene is located on a 7776-bp BamHI fragment and was shown to comprise twelve exons, of which ten encode the ODC protein (exons III–XII). Introduction of the BamHI fragment into an ODC-deficient hamster cell line restores ODC activity, indicating that the gene is functional. Comparison of the structure and nucleotide (nt) sequence of the rat ODC gene with recently reported mouse ODC genes, reveals that the gene is highly conserved. Primer extension analysis and RNA sequencing demonstrates that the transcription start point of rat ODC mRNA is located 303 nt upstream from the A residue in the start codon. Compared with our previously published sequence of the rat ODC cDNA, this indicates that a short sequence at the extreme 5′ end of our cDNA clone represents a cloning artefact. The correct 5′ leader of ODC mRNA, which is very G + C rich (62%), can be folded into a highly stable secondary structure, which may play a role in the translational control of ODC activity. Like in mouse, the promoter region of rat ODC is also extremely rich in G + C, and contains a TATA box and several putative SP1-binding sites. Possible binding sites for other transcription factors, like AP-1, AP-2 and CREB, can also be observed in the promoter region and, moreover, in the first intro. With the help of constructs containing different portions of the promoter region fused to the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase-encoding gene ( cat), the function and boundaries of the rat ODC promoter were analyzed. For transient expression in Rat-1 cells, sequences between 78 and 105 bp upstream of the cap site were found to be essential. In this region, only a putative CAAT box (CCGAT) is observed. Deletion of 4 nt within this sequence motif clearly diminished the promoter activity, thereby lending further support to its functional significance.

Polyamine metabolism and cell-cycle-dependent gene expression in IMR-90 human diploid fibroblasts during senescence in culture

Aging of IMR-90 human diploid fibroblasts in culture is accompanied by specific changes of polyamine metabolism including: (a) a fivefold decrease of serum-induced activity of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC 1 EC 4.1.1.17); (b) a six to tenfold increase of polyamine catabolism; and (c) a reduction of putrescine uptake. These changes apparently led to a significant reduction of putrescine accumulation in senescent cells following serum stimulation. Since the induction of ODC is a mid-G 1 event, the change of polyamine metabolism may be related to changes of expression of other cell-cycle-dependent genes during cellular aging. In addition to ODC gene, we have examined the expression of two early G 1 genes, c-erbB and c-myc, and one late G 1/S gene thymidine kinase, at mRNA levels, in both young and old IMR-90 cells. We have also compared the enzyme activities of two late G 1/S genes, thymidine kinase and thymidylate synthetase, in young and old cells following serum stimulation. We did not observe significant changes of c-erbB, c-myc, and ODC mRNA levels during cellular senescence. However, we found that serum-induced mRNA level of thymidine kinase gene in old IMR-90 cells was significantly reduced compared to that in the young cells. Results also demonstrate that aging of IMR-90 cells was accompanied by significant decrease of both thymidine kinase and thymidylate synthetase activities. In view of the recognized importance of polyamines in growth regulation, it is possible that alteration of polyamine metabolism may contribute to the impairment of expression of some key G 1/S genes and such impairment may contribute to the ultimate loss of dividing potential in senescent cells.

Identification of an X-linked member of the Odc gene family in the mouse.

Identification of an X-linked member of the Odc gene family in the mouse.

Cloning of the orotidine 5'-phosphate decarboxylase (ODC) gene of Schwanniomyces occidentalis by complementation of the ura3 mutation in S. cerevisiae.

A DNA fragment containing the gene encoding orotidine 5'-phosphate decarboxylase (ODC) from the yeast, Schwanniomyces occidentalis (formerly castellii) has been isolated from a genomic library constructed in the S. cerevisiae expression vector, pYcDE8. A recombinant plasmid, p2-1A, containing a 2.47 kb insert was shown to complement the ura3-52 mutation of several strains of S. cerevisiae. This DNA insert was shown to be from Schwanniomyces occidentalis by Southern hybridization analysis. A restriction enzyme cleavage map of the insert has been derived and the ODC gene localized to a 1.1 kb region by deletion analysis. In addition, we have demonstrated that expression of ODC is not dependent on the ADH1 promoter carried on pYcDE8. This is the first report of the cloning of a gene from a member of the genus Schwanniomyces.

Chronic exposure to dexamethasone induces hypomethylation of ornithine decarboxylase genes in a human myeloma cell line

Chronic exposure of a human myeloma cell line to dexamethasone resulted in a selection of cells resistant to the growth-inhibitory action of the glucocorticoid. Upon acute exposure of the parental myeloma cells to dexamethasone growth inhibition was associated with depression of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC, EC 4.1.1.17) activity. However, in cells adapted to grow in the presence of micromolar concentrations of dexamethasone, ODC activity was fully comparable to that in the parental cells. Restriction enzyme analyses with the two isoschizomers HpaII and MspI as well as with the methylation-sensitive C⨍oI, indicated that the otherwise heavily methylated ODC gene(s) were rendered hypomethylated in the myeloma cells resistant to dexamethasone. This hypomethylation within and/or around ODC genes was associated with a 2–4-fold enhancement of accumulation of ODC mRNA.