Potential Regulatory Role of the Conversed Elements in Sox23'Untranslated Region

The transcription factor Sox2 is one of the earliest determinants of the neural system in vertebrate and plays crucial roles in stem cell maintenance. Through bioinformatical analysis, we found that the 3'untranslated regions (3'UTR) of vertebrate Sox2 mRNAs (especially the 300 bases at the most 3' end) are highly conserved and contain four conserved AU rich fragments. Through reporter gene analysis, we evaluated the effects of the Sox2 full length 3'UTR and the conserved fragments on gene expression in Xenopus laevis embryos and cultured cells. The results showed that the conserved fragment 2 from the 3'UTR of Xenoups laevis Sox2 was able to increase the reporter gene expression significantly, indicating the possibility that the expression level of Sox2 might be regulated post-transcriptionally through its 3'UTR.

[1]  A. Prochiantz,et al.  From brain formation to plasticity: Insights on Otx2 homeoprotein , 2009, Development, growth & differentiation.

[2]  Yvonne Tay,et al.  MicroRNAs to Nanog, Oct4 and Sox2 coding regions modulate embryonic stem cell differentiation , 2008, Nature.

[3]  P. Anderson.  Post-transcriptional control of cytokine production , 2008, Nature Immunology.

[4]  R. Lovell-Badge,et al.  Mutations within Sox2/SOX2 are associated with abnormalities in the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis in mice and humans. , 2006, The Journal of clinical investigation.

[5]  S. Magness,et al.  SOX2 is a dose-dependent regulator of retinal neural progenitor competence. , 2006, Genes & development.

[6]  R. Lovell-Badge,et al.  Mutations within Sox 2 / SOX 2 are associated with abnormalities in the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis in mice and humans , 2006 .

[7]  V. Episkopou.  SOX2 functions in adult neural stem cells , 2005, Trends in Neurosciences.

[8]  L. Pevny,et al.  SOX2 Functions to Maintain Neural Progenitor Identity , 2003, Neuron.

[9]  S. Kuersten,et al.  The power of the 3′ UTR: translational control and development , 2003, Nature Reviews Genetics.

[10]  R. Lovell-Badge,et al.  Multipotent cell lineages in early mouse development depend on SOX2 function. , 2003, Genes & development.

[11]  M. Kirschner,et al.  Molecular targets of vertebrate segmentation: two mechanisms control segmental expression of Xenopus hairy2 during somite formation. , 2001, Developmental cell.

[12]  A. Simeone,et al.  Forebrain and midbrain development requires epiblast-restricted Otx2 translational control mediated by its 3' UTR. , 2001, Development.

[13]  Y. Sasai,et al.  Roles of Sox factors in neural determination: conserved signaling in evolution? , 2001, The International journal of developmental biology.

[14]  A. Frasch,et al.  AU-rich Elements in the 3′-Untranslated Region of a New Mucin-type Gene Family of Trypanosoma cruzi Confers mRNA Instability and Modulates Translation Efficiency* , 2000, The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

[15]  K. Mizuseki,et al.  Requirement of Sox2-mediated signaling for differentiation of early Xenopus neuroectoderm. , 2000, Development.

[16]  K. Mizuseki,et al.  Xenopus Zic-related-1 and Sox-2, two factors induced by chordin, have distinct activities in the initiation of neural induction. , 1998, Development.

[17]  C. Niehrs,et al.  Antagonizing the Spemann organizer: role of the homeobox gene Xvent‐1. , 1995, The EMBO journal.

[18]  J. Gurdon,et al.  Normal table of Xenopus laevis (Daudin) , 1995 .