(Received for publication, August 12, 1996, and in revised form, October 16, 1996)
From the Department of Entomology, and Programs in Genetics and Cell and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1115
Insect oocytes are extraordinarily specialized
for receptor-mediated endocytosis of yolk protein precursors. The
clathrin heavy chain (CHC) is the major structural protein of coated
vesicles, the principal organelles of receptor-mediated endocytosis. To understand the role of clathrin in the development of the oocyte's powerful endocytotic machinery we determined the structure of the
mosquito chc gene. The gene spans approximately 45 kilobases and its coding region is divided into seven exons, five of
which encode the protein. Three distinct mature transcripts of this gene were identified in mosquito tissues. Two of them code isoforms of
the CHC polypeptide differing in their NH2-terminal
sequences, and are specifically expressed in female germ-line cells.
The third transcript has a 3-untranslated region about 1 kilobase longer than the other variants, and is found only in the somatic cells.
Tissue-specific 5
-exon splicing and alternative polyadenylation of the
primary transcript combine to give rise to these mRNAs. We
identified two alternative promoters, distal and proximal, separated by
approximately 10 kilobases involved in tissue-specific regulation of
mosquito chc gene expression. Our data provide the first
molecular evidence for complex structure and regulation of a
chc gene, in this case occurring at both the
transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels.
Insect oocytes are highly specialized for receptor-mediated endocytosis of yolk protein precursors, and are characterized by a concentration of endocytotic organelles that is unparalleled in any other cell. The principal organelles of this endocytotic machinery are clathrin-coated pits and clathrin-coated vesicles. Three clathrin heavy chains (CHC)1 combine with three clathrin light chains (CLC) to create hexameric triskelions (1, 2, 3), which associate with adaptor proteins or adaptins (4). Adaptins provide a link between the triskelion and the cytoplasmic domain of target membrane receptors destined for internalization (3, 5, 6). During endocytosis, certain receptors for extracellular ligands are selectively concentrated in clathrin-coated pits. With the aid of the GTPase dynamin (7), a fully-invaginated coated pit is pinched off into the cytoplasm as a coated vesicle that contains the receptors and their ligands. In the cytoplasm, the clathrin coat disassembles rapidly and the uncoated vesicle fuses with its specific target compartment. Clathrin triskelions released from coated vesicles presumably recycle to the plasma membrane to undergo additional cycles of assembly and disassembly.
Clathrin is ubiquitously expressed by eukaryotic cells of all organisms analyzed so far, from Protozoa to Metazoa (8). Although unicellular organisms such as yeast (9, 10) and Dictyostelium (11) can grow slowly and survive in the absence of clathrin, even the relatively simple cellular differentiation of these organisms require its function. Recent genetic studies in Drosophila have demonstrated that in multicellular organisms clathrin function is essential, and moreover, that there is a specialized role for clathrin in certain cell differentiation processes, like spermatogenesis (12).
Although coated vesicles were first identified in insect cells, viz. mosquito oocytes (13), detailed biochemical characterizations of clathrin (14) and molecular analyses of both the heavy and light chains have been undertaken mostly in mammalian (15, 16, 17) and yeast (9, 10, 18, 19) systems. Sequence analyses have demonstrated a relatively high degree of identity (about 50%) among CHC polypeptides from such disparate species as rat and yeast, but only about 18% identity among CLCs. Mammals (rat, cattle, and human) express two types of CLC, which are coded by distinct single copy genes (16, 17, 20), whereas yeast and Amplysia cells express only one type of CLC (9, 18, 21). In addition, mammalian CLC genes undergo tissue-specific mRNA splicing (22). In contrast, only one single-copy gene for CHC has been identified in mammals (15, 23, 24), yeast (19), Dictyostelium (25), Caenorhabditis elegans (26), and Drosophila (12), and no splicing events of CHC mRNA have been described for any of these species. However, very recently, a second gene for CHC with differential expression in human sceletal muscle was identified (27, 28), suggesting that the molecular heterogeneity of clathrin triskelions in at least some tissues could arise from a combination of CLC and CHC variants.
The intensive process of receptor-mediated endocytosis of yolk protein
precursors in the developing oocytes of the yellow fever mosquito,
Aedes aegypti, provides an excellent model system for
analyzing the biogenesis of clathrin-associated transport machinery
(29). Systematic characterization of the major components of this
machinery at the molecular level is not only of general biological
interest but also of practical significance, because the processes of
egg maturation and disease transmission are intimately tied in
anautogenous mosquitoes through the requirement of a blood meal.
Recently, one of the major components of this vesicular transport
system, the mosquito vitellogenin receptor, was characterized (30, 31)
and its cDNA isolated and sequenced (32). This paper reports the
molecular characterization of the gene coding another major component
of coated vesicles, the CHC. Our results demonstrate that the A. aegypti chc gene is regulated at both transcriptional and
post-transcriptional levels. Combinations of alternative 5-exon
splicing and alternative polyadenylation generate three distinct mature
CHC transcripts, which exhibit tissue-, stage-, and sex-specific
expression. Our data also suggest that two alternative promoter regions
are involved in A. aegypti chc gene regulation resulting in
two CHC isoforms in ovarian germ-line cells. In addition, whole mount
in situ hybridization experiments with mosquito ovaries have
revealed that the A. aegypti chc gene is expressed very
early during previtellogenic development of the oocyte and that the
ovarian CHC transcripts are found only in germ-line cells.
Mosquitoes, A. aegypti, were maintained in laboratory culture as described elsewhere (33). Vitellogenesis was initiated 3-5 days after eclosion with a blood meal on rats.
Cloning and Characterization of Mosquito CHC cDNA and Genomic SequencesA cDNA fragment of the A. aegypti CHC
was first amplified from 20 µg of ovarian total RNA by reverse
transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), using a degenerate
forward primer,
TCGTG(CT)AA(CT)GA(AG)CC(A,C,G,T)GC(A,C,G,T)GT(A,C,G,T)TGG, and a reverse primer,
AT
TC(A,C,G,T)GT(A,G)AACAT(A,C,G,T)CCCAT(A,G)TG, which were designed based on CHC sequences conserved in
Drosophila and rat (12, 15). To facilitate cloning of PCR
products, an anchor sequence (italics) containing an XbaI
restriction site (underlined) was added to the 5
-end of the primers. A
650-bp cDNA fragment was generated and subcloned into the pUC119
vector, and its identity verified by double-strand sequencing (34).
Seven independent cDNA clones and four partially overlapping
genomic DNA clones, comprising the entire coding region of the A. aegypti chc gene, were subsequently isolated by hybridization screening of a ZAP II cDNA library generated from
previtellogenic female mosquitoes, and of a
Fix II genomic library
prepared from adult mosquito whole bodies (35). In addition, two
cDNA clones, representing the 5
-most end of CHC transcripts, were
generated by the rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) technique
(36). For this, 1 µg of poly(A)+ RNA isolated from
vitellogenic ovaries 6 h post-blood meal (PBM) was reverse
transcribed using random hexamer primers. The RNA/DNA hybrid was
digested with RNase H, and the single stranded cDNA was tailed at
the 3
-end with dGTP using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase. First
strand cDNA was then amplified using a 5
-anchor primer
(5
-AGAGAATTCCCCCCCCCCCCCC-3
) and a gene-specific reverse primer RP3
(5
-TGCGCATCGTTCATATCGATAATG-3
) designed from the genomic sequence of
clone
CHC N1. Two different PCR-generated fragments of 0.34 and 0.68 kb were obtained, subcloned, and sequenced.
The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of the putative A. aegypti CHC clones were analyzed using the FASTA and GAP programs (University of Wisconsin, Genetics Computer Group software).
Primer Extension and S1 Nuclease MappingPrimer
extension experiments were performed following the method described by
Sambrook et al. (34). A 30-base oligonucleotide (5-TTTTGACGTTTTGCTCTCATGAATGTCGAC-3
) was end-labeled with
[
-32P]ATP (3000 Ci/mmol, DuPont NEN) by T4
polynucleotide kinase (Boehringer Mannheim) and used in primer
extension reactions with 10 µg of total ovarian RNA isolated from
previtellogenic females and 10 µg of tRNA (as a control). The
products were fractionated on a DNA sequencing gel. Bacteriophage
M13mp18 DNA was sequenced as a marker using M13 primer from a Sequenase
version 2.0 kit (U.S. Biochemical Corp.).
S1 nuclease mapping was performed with a 522-bp genomic
SacI-SalGI fragment derived from phage clone
CHC4D. The 5
-end of the SalGI site of this fragment was
dephosphorylated with calf intestine alkaline phosphatase (Boehringer
Mannheim) and 32P-labeled with T4 polynucleotide kinase.
After hydridization of the probe with 10 µg of total ovarian RNA and
10 µg of tRNA (as a control), and subsequent digestion with
S1 nuclease as described by Sambrook et al.
(34), the reaction products were processed in the same manner as in
primer extension analyses.
Total RNA was extracted and purified from mosquito tissues by the guanidine isothyocyanate method as described previously (37). BioMag Oligo(dT)20 beads (PerSeptive Diagnostics, Inc.) were used for poly(A)+ RNA isolation from total ovarian RNA according to the supplier's instructions. For Northern blot analyses, total RNA was fractionated in 1% agarose/formaldehyde gels, blotted to a nitrocellulose membrane, and hybridized to 32P-labeled DNA probes under high stringency conditions (34).
RT-PCR analyses were used to determine developmental expression
profiles of two CHC isoforms in mosquito ovaries, as well as their
tissue and sex specificity. For each time point tested, 10 µg of
total RNA was reverse-transcribed using random hexamer primers. The PCR
reaction was performed under conditions previously described (38) using
isoform-specific forward primers, FP1a (5-AGCATGGCATCGCTTCTG AAGCTGACC-3
) and FP2b
(5
-CATGTCGCAGGCTCTCCCGATTC GTTTCC-3
), and a common reverse primer
RP3, the same as for the 5
RACE-PCR reaction. PCR products were
separated by agarose gel electrophoresis, blotted to a nitrocellulose
membrane, and hybridized to probes specific to the individual
transcript being analyzed.
Whole mount in situ hybridization was performed according to the method of Tautz and Pfeifle (39) as described previously (32, 40).
To characterize the
mosquito CHC, putative cDNA and genomic clones were isolated and
analyzed. Using degenerate primers based on Drosophila and
rat sequences (12, 15), a 650-bp fragment of CHC cDNA was amplified
from ovarian total RNA by RT-PCR, and subsequently subcloned and
sequenced. The amino acid sequence deduced from this cDNA fragment
exhibits identities of 85% to Drosophila, 75% to rat, 55%
to Dictyostelium, and 46% to yeast CHCs, confirming that
the isolated clone was from a mosquito CHC. Using this DNA fragment as
a probe, several independent clones were isolated from a cDNA
library of previtellogenic females, characterized by restriction
analysis, and partially sequenced. Sequencing of both strands of the
largest cDNA (3.9 kb) revealed that this clone contained a 2.5-kb
protein-coding region and a 1.4-kb 3-untranslated region (UTR). All
isolated clones showed extensive congruence of DNA sequences in the
protein coding region, but they fell into two classes differing in
their 3
-UTR: one group exhibited a long 3
-UTR of 1.4 kb, whereas the
other had a short 3
-UTR of 0.35 kb. Northern analyses revealed two
types CHC transcripts in mosquito tissues (Fig.
1A): an "ovarian" 6.5-kb mRNA found
only in the ovaries of previtellogenic and vitellogenic females, and a
"somatic" 7.5-kb mRNA present in the somatic tissues of females
(females minus ovaries, or carcasses) and whole body preparations of
males. Significantly, when the unique portion of the long 3
-UTR (1-kb
fragment) was used as a probe, hybridization was observed to the
somatic mRNA only (Fig. 1B), indicating that the major
difference between the two mRNAs was the length of the 3
-UTR.
Because the largest cDNA clone contained only the 3-half of the
CHC protein-coding region, a fragment from its 5
-end was used to
screen cDNA libraries (constructed from previtellogenic females and
vitellogenic ovaries) and a genomic library in an attempt to isolate
the full CHC coding sequence. A 14-kb clone containing the beginning of
the coding region of the CHC was isolated from the genomic library.
This genomic clone,
CHC1N, was characterized by restriction mapping,
hybridization to cDNAs, and extensive sequence analysis (Fig.
2). Based on comparisons with other clathrin sequences,
we estimated that it contained 99% of the CHC protein-coding region,
including four exons (3, 4, 5, and 6; Fig. 2); the last of these also
coded the first 148 bp of the 3
-UTR. However, sequences coding for the
5
-UTR, the very beginning of the translated region (~14 aa), and the
majority of the 3
-UTR were unrepresented in this clone.
It was not known how distant the remaining short protein-coding region
at the 5-end was from the beginning of exon 3, and sequencing over 1 kb into the intron failed to reveal it. The strategy we adopted was to
determine the sequence of this region from 5
-RACE PCR-generated
cDNA, which would allow us to design probes from its sequence to
isolate genomic clones containing it. Suprisingly, sequencing of the
RACE-PCR products revealed two classes of cDNA (0.34- and 0.68-kb)
coding CHC isoforms, A. aegypti CHCa and A. aegypti
CHCb, differing in their 5
-UTRs and NH2-terminal
portions of the protein (Fig. 3). Probes designed from
both isoform-specific sequences were used to screen the genomic library, and two positive phage clones,
CHC4B and
CHC4D, were isolated (Fig. 2). Restriction mapping and sequencing of restriction fragments hybridizing to probes from A. aegypti CHCa and
A. aegypti CHCb demonstrated that the two clones overlap and
that the two isoforms are coded by alternatively spliced exons:
A. aegypti CHCa is produced by splicing exon 1a to exon 3, and A. aegypti CHCb is generated by splicing exons 1b, 2b,
and 3 (Fig. 2; Table I). Exon 1a is 182 bp long, is
located ~15 kb upstream of exon 3, and codes the 5
-UTR and the
beginning of the NH2-terminal sequence of A. ageytpi
CHCa. Exons 1b and 2b are separated by a small intron of 53 bp and
are located ~5 kb upstream of exon 3. Exon 1b codes part of the
5
-UTR and exon 2b codes the remainder of the 5
-UTR and the
NH2-terminal sequence of A. aegypti CHCb.
|
To isolate a clone containing the 3-end of the gene, the unique 1-kb
fragment of the long 3
-UTR cDNA was used as a probe. This
screening successfully yielded the remainder of the 3
-UTR: the
isolated genomic clone,
CHC5-1, coded the last exon (exon 7; Fig.
2). Because the clones
CHC5-1 and
CHC1N did not overlap, the size
of the intron separating exons 6 and 7 was gauged by Southern blot
analysis of mosquito genomic DNA. The minimum size of this intron was
estimated to be ~15 kb (data not shown). The structure of exon 7 was
determined by sequencing a 7.1-kb genomic EcoRI-EcoRI fragment derived from
CHC5-1 (Fig.
2). This genomic sequence was compared to the cDNA sequences of the
long 1.4-kb and short 0.35-kb 3
-UTRs (Fig. 4). The
genomic sequence from phage
CHC5-1 was identical to the long
cDNA sequences, and no splice variants were observed in this
region.
The sequence of the 3-UTR of the A. aaegypti chc gene (Fig.
4) is coded by the last 148 nucleotides of exon 6 and exon 7, about
1.3-kb. Several putative consensus sites, ATTTA, which are thought to
increase instability of mRNA (41, 42), are located in this region.
Two of these sites were identified in the nucleotide sequence of the
ovarian transcript (short 3
-UTR), and seven sites were found in the
somatic transcript sequence (long 3
-UTR) (Fig. 4). A nonamer consensus
sequence, TTATTTA(T/A)(T/A), containing repeat number 5 of the somatic
transcript sequence and the tandemly arranged repeats numbers 6 and 7 are two motifs recently shown to significantly increase mRNA
instability in many cases (43).
Analysis of exon-intron organization of the A. aegypti chc gene (Table I) revealed that all splice sites conform to the GT/AG consensus (44): the introns start with a GT-dinucleotide and end with an AG-dinucleotide. Examination of intron phasing indicates that introns 1a, 1b, and 2 are positioned between codons, while all other introns which interrupt the protein-coding region (3, 4, and 5) are situated between the first and second nucleotide within the codon.
Transcription Start Site MappingPrimer extension and
S1 nuclease protection experiments were conducted to
determine the transcription start site of the ovarian mRNA-coded
isoform, A. aegypti CHCb. A 30-base oligonucleotide primer,
complementary to the sequence of putative exon 1b (position 91-121 of
the A. aegypti CHCb cDNA generated by 5-RACE PCR)
(GenBank accession number GSDB:S:1076487), was hybridized to total
previtellogenic ovarian RNA and extended using Superscript II reverse
transcriptase. This resulted in a 552-bp extension product (Fig.
5A), placing the transcription start site 432 bp upstream of the available cDNA.
We performed S1 nuclease protection experiments to confirm that this position is the genuine start site of chc gene transcription, and that the extension product was not prematurely terminated due to mRNA secondary structure. When a 522-nucleotide DNA probe, corresponding to a genomic fragment containing most of putative exon 1b and extending upstream, was hybridized to total ovarian RNA, one strong S1-resistant product of 502 bp was detected (Fig. 5B). Thus, the size of exon 1b was calculated to be 692 bp, and the inferred start site position corresponds well with that predicted from the primer extension experiments.
Tissue, Sex, and Stage Specificity of Alternative Exon SplicingTissue specificity of alternative 5-end exon splicing,
and the possible correspondence of the A. aegypti CHCa and
A. aegypti CHCb isoforms to the ovarian (6.5-kb) and somatic
(7.5-kb) transcripts were examined by RT-PCR of RNA fractions from
ovaries of previtellogenic and vitellogenic females, female carcasses,
males, and early embryos. Three PCR primers were used: the reverse
primer RP3 (containing a sequence from exon 3 common to both the
A. aegypti CHCa and A. aegypti CHCb isoforms),
and two forward primers, FP1a (specific to the A. aegypti
CHCa isoform, derived from the exon 1a sequence) and FP2b
(specific to the A. aegypti CHCb isoform, derived from the
exon 2b sequence). PCR amplification using exon 1a- and 3-specific primers produced an intense band of the expected size (203 bp) from
ovaries of previtellogenic females (1 and 4 days after eclosion) and
early vitellogenic females (6 h PBM), and a less intense band from
ovaries of later vitellogenic females (18 h PBM) (Fig.
6). No bands were observed using RNA from ovaries of
late vitellogenic females (24 and 48 h PBM), female carcasses,
males, or early embryos (Fig. 6). In contrast, PCR amplification using
primers specific to exons 2b and 3 yielded intense bands of the
expected size (177 bp) for the ovaries of previtellogenic and
vitellogenic females, as well as for female carcasses, males, and early
embryos (Fig. 6).
Localization of CHC Transcripts in the Ovary
We examined the
spatial distribution of the AaCHC transcripts in the ovary by whole
mount in situ hybridization. The hybridization signal was
observed in the oocytes of developing primary follicles during early
previtellogenic stages and later in their nurse cells (Fig.
7). There was no apparent accumulation in the somatic
follicle cells. Interestingly, A. aegypti CHC RNA could be
detected even in oocytes of the undifferentiated ovary, 0-1 day after
eclosion (Fig. 7A). It dramatically increased in abundance
by 3-4 days after eclosion (Fig. 7B).
During the vitellogenic period, A. aegypti CHC mRNA was
present in both oocytes and nurse cells from 3 to 12 h PBM (Fig.
7C) but virtually disappeared from the primary follicles by
24 h PBM. It is noteworthy that, at midvitellogenesis, the
accumulation of A. aegypti CHC transcripts could also be
clearly detected in the oocytes of secondary follicles (not shown).
Significantly, no hybridization was observed to a probe derived from
the long 3-UTR, which specifically recognizes the 7.5-kb somatic
transcript (not shown), suggesting that only the 6.5-kb ovarian
transcript is synthesized in germ-line derived cells during pre- and
vitellogenic stages. Finally, control (sense) DNA probes never produced
hybridization signals (not shown), confirming the specificity of the
in situ hybridization technique used in this study.
The A. aegypti chc gene spans ~45 kb and is composed of 7 exons, five of which encode the protein (Fig. 2). The protein-coding sequence of the A. aegypti chc gene is highly conserved evolutionarily, at both the nucleotide and amino acid levels. Although the protein-coding sequences of CHCs are well characterized in several organisms, until now no detailed molecular characterization of a chc gene has been reported. Hybridization analyses demonstrated that the Drosophila CHC transcription unit is not less than 10-kb; and P element-mediated transformation has shown that a 13-kb genomic DNA fragment, including the transcription unit, is sufficient to rescue lethal CHC mutations (12). Thus, the length of the Drosophila CHC locus should be approximately three times less than that of the mosquito, consistent with the 5-fold larger size of the A. aegypti genome (45).
Two CHC isoforms, A. aegypti CHCa and A. aegypti
CHCb, were identified when 5-RACE PCR products were sequenced
(Fig. 3), and analyses of overlapping genomic clones revealed that
these isoforms are coded by distinct transcripts generated as a result of alternative splicing of exons at the 5
-end of the gene (Fig. 2).
The transcription start site was identified for the A. aegypti CHCb mRNA (Fig. 5), but has not yet been determined for the
A. aegypti CHCa transcript. Preliminary experiments suggest
that there may be another exon upstream of exon 1a containing an
untranslated sequence that has yet to be isolated. Nevertheless, it is
clear that transcription of the two A. aegypti CHC mRNA
variants is regulated by two alternative promoters, which we designate
distal (for A. aegypti CHCa) and proximal (for A. aegypti CHCb).
Employment of isoform-specific primers in RT-PCR showed that A. aegypti CHCa transcripts are present in ovarian tissue only, but that A. aegypti CHCb transcripts can also be detected in somatic tissues of females and males (Fig. 6). These results strongly suggest that there is tissue- and sex-specific usage of exon 1a, but not of exons 1b and 2b.
Differential stage-specific expression is characteristic of the splice variants as well. Both the A. aegypti CHCa transcript, regulated by a distal promoter, and the A. aegypti CHCb transcript, regulated by a proximal promoter, exhibit similar kinetics, peaking in the late previtellogenic and early vitellogenic stage (Fig. 6). However, the distal ovarian transcript (A. aegypti CHCa) is expressed only before 24 h PBM (peak of vitellogenesis), and is not detectable later. In contrast, the proximal ovarian transcript (A. aegypti CHCb) is present throughout the entire vitellogenic period, persisting until the later stages of egg development and even in newly-laid eggs (Fig. 6). We suggest that the distal ovarian transcript is required for the receptor-mediated machinery of developing oocytes; it is uniquely germ-line specific and is expressed prior to or during yolk protein endocytosis, disappearing at the time of uptake termination. The proximal ovarian transcript with its persistent presence in fully-developed eggs indicates that this mRNA may be produced to meet the future needs of the mosquito embryo.
In addition to the two types of transcripts generated through
alternative splicing, two tissue-specific size classes of A. aegypti CHC transcripts (6.5-kb ovarian and 7.5-kb somatic) were detected by Northern hybridization experiments (Fig. 1). Sequencing of
cDNA clones revealed that the ~1-kb difference in size is
accounted for by a corresponding difference in the lengths of the
3-UTRs. Comparison of the genomic sequence of this region with those
of the cDNA clones (Fig. 4) indicated that the size variants do not arise through alternative splicing of exons in the 3
-region. Instead,
alternative polyadenylation is the probable mechanism generating the
observed size variants of A. aegypti CHC mRNAs (Fig. 1).
Two putative alternative polyadenylation signals were identified at
positions 5357 and 6426 (Fig. 4). It is thus likely that alternative
usage of these polyadenylation signals results in expression of two
different transcripts in somatic and female reproductive tissues.
The deduced alternative splicing and transcription termination events
occurring in the transcripts derived from the A. aegypti chc
gene are presented in Fig. 8. The dual mechanisms of
alternative splicing in the 5-region and alternative polyadenylation
in the 3
-region combine to produce at least three types of mature CHC transcripts in mosquito tissues, which we designate A. aegypti CHCa-O (ovarian), A. aegypti CHCb-O (ovarian), and
A. aegypti CHCb-S (somatic) (Fig. 8). Thus, the A. aegypti chc gene is apparently regulated at both the
transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels in a tissue-, sex-, and
stage-specific manner.
In contrast to A. aegypti CHCa-O and A. aegypti CHCb-O, the
A. aegypti CHCb-S transcript is found only in female somatic
tissues (Fig. 1). Both A. aegypti CHCb-O and A. aegypti CHCb-S are regulated by the proximal promoter (Figs. 2 and
8), but alternative polyadenylation results in unique sequences in the
3-UTR. Eukaryotic gene expression is partly controlled by rate of
mRNA degradation, which is generally a function of regulatory
sequences in the 3
-UTR (46). The longer 3
-UTR of the A. aegypti
CHCb-S transcript contains more and more potent consensus
sequences (42, 43) that promote mRNA decay than does the shorter
3
-UTR of the A. aegypti CHCa-O and AaCHCb-O transcripts (Fig. 4). These data suggest that the ovarian A. aegypti CHC transcripts are more stable than the somatic one. Such
stability would facilitate accumulation of A. aegypti CHC
mRNA in developing oocytes, permitting large-scale production of
clathrin protein during vitellogenesis when endocytosis of massive
amounts of vitellogenin is occurring. Ovarian AaCHC
transcripts with short 3
-UTR begin to accumulate very early in oocyte
differentiation (Fig. 7A) and resistance to decay would be
of obvious advantage.
Clathrin is widely distributed in both germ-line and somatic cells of eukaryotes, playing an extremely important role in the universally critical processes of receptor-mediated endocytosis and secretion. It is likely that clathrin exhibits specialized functions in various tissues, implying a need for specific regulation of chc gene expression during the development of multicellular organisms. Genetic studies in yeast and Drosophila demonstrated that different functions of clathrin are genetically distinguishable (12, 19). Yeast CHC with a carboxyl-terminal deletion can rescue viability defects of null mutations but fails to complement defects in a-factor processing (19). Three of four lethal mutations of the CHC locus in Drosophila block development late in embryogenesis probably affecting the neuromotor function (12). Individuals with the fourth allele occasionally survive to adulthood but are characterized by invariable male sterility, pointing to a specialized role for clathrin in spermatogenesis.
The results presented in this paper provide the direct molecular
evidence for complex regulation of a chc gene in higher
organisms. Two promoter regions have been identified in the A. aegypti chc gene. Alternative usage of these promoters clearly has
tissue-, sex-, and stage-specific characteristics. One would expect
that mutations associated with these sequences will effect different functions and lead to various phenotypes. In addition, alternative polyadenylation has been observed at the 3-end of the A. aegypti CHC primary transcript, which may differentially effect the
stability, and perhaps translation efficiency, of A. aegypti
CHC mRNA in germ-line and somatic cells. The combination of
all these complex genetic processes provides a putative basis from
which a diversity of CHC transcripts is derived, a diversity which may
be essential for specialized functions of clathrin in eukaryotic
cells.
The nucleotide sequence(s) reported in this paper has been submitted to the GenBankTM/EMBL Data Bank with accession number(s) GSDB:S:1076486 and GSDB:S:1076487.
We thank Dr. T. W. Sappington for thoughtful insights on the manuscript, Dr. W. L. Cho for critical reading and Sydney Allen for editing the manuscript, and Alan Hays for excellent technical assistance.