Isolation and characterization of glutamine synthetase from chicken neural retina.

Differential inhibition by intercalating dyes of catabolite-sensitive enzyme induction is reversed by cyclic AMP and could be due to in vivo differences in DNA conformation which increase the accessibility of the promoter region for dye binding and thus selectively inhibit transcription.

Differential inhibition of catabolite-sensitive enzyme induction by intercalating dyes.

Proflavine as a differential probe of gene expression: inhibition of glutamine synthetase induction in embryonic retina.

The analogue of cytidine, cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C), elicited a significant increase in the level of glutamine synthetase (GS) in embryonic chick neural retina in the absence of the steroid inducer of the enzyme. The increase was due to de novo synthesis of GS and was mediated by RNA which accumulated in the presence of the effective concentration of Ara-C. Accumulation of GS did not result from the inhibition of DNA synthesis for which Ara-C is best known. This new effect of Ara-C involves differential suppression of macromolecular synthesis in this system: the concentration of Ara-C which caused maximum GS accumulation suppressed overall protein and RNA syntheses 65–75% without inhibiting the transcription and translation of templates essential for GS synthesis. Withdrawal of Ara-C resulted in restoration of RNA synthesis and cessation of GS accumulation, even though preformed templates for the enzyme were present; however, if all RNA synthesis was arrested with actinomycin D at the time of Ara-C withdrawal, GS continued to accumulate. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that Ara-C differentially affects the activity of structural and regulatory genes involved in the regulation of GS levels in the retina: Ara-C allows transcription of the enzyme-specific templates, but reversibly inhibits the expression of regulatory genes which limit the accumulation of GS.

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Effects of cytosine arabinoside on differential gene expression in embryonic neural retina. I. Accumulation of glutamine synthetase with suppression of macromolecular synthesis.

Hydrocortisone-mediated regulation of gene expression in embryonic neural retina: induction of glutamine synthetase.

The hormonal induction of glutamine synthetase (EC 6.3.1.2) in embryonic neural retina tissue in vitro is blocked preferentially and reversibly by proflavine (3,6-diaminoacridine) in the absence of cell or DNA replication; cell viability is not affected, and the synthesis of total cellular proteins and RNA is only slightly reduced. In the induction of this enzyme, there is a rapid increase in the synthesis and accumulation of the enzyme selectively elicited by the steroid inducer; for this effect, transcription is essential. Radioimmunochemical measurements have shown that proflavine inhibits induction by prevention of de novo synthesis of catalytically active and immunologically reactive glutamine synthetase protein. It does not measurably affect the uptake of the steroid inducer by the retina cells. Since the translation of this enzyme by preformed RNA templates is not stopped by proflavine, the inhibitory effect of proflavine on induction is apparently due to interference with transcriptional or pretranslational processes required for the provision of active transcripts for enzyme synthesis. The finding that proflavine inhibits preferentially a tissue-specific, inducible differentiation in postmitotic embryonic neural cells offers new approaches to the study of regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes.

A. A. Moscona

Papers

Preferential inhibition by proflavine of the hormonal induction of glutamine synthetase in embryonic neural retina.