Characterization of an intronless collagen gene family in the marine sponge Microciona prolifera.

Two independent clones from the genomic DNA of a marine sponge Microciona prolifera were isolated by hybridization to the Caenorhabditis elegans Col-1 gene and one clone was obtained from genomic DNA by PCR. They contain open reading frames (MpCol1, MpCol2, MpCol3, MpCol4) capable of coding for a family of collagens different from those previously found in sponges. Southern blotting of genomic DNA suggested the presence of several other homologous genes.

Quantitative analysis of collagen expression in embryonic chick chondrocytes having different developmental fates.

A quantitative determination of collagen expression was carried out in cultured chondrocytes obtained from a tissue that undergoes endochondral bone replacement (ventral vertebra) and one that does not (caudal sterna). The "short chain" collagen, type X is only expressed in the former while the other "short chain" collagen type IX, was primarily expressed in the latter. These two tissues also differ in that vertebral chondrocytes express moderate levels of both type I procollagen mRNAs which were translated into full length procollagen chains both in vivo and in vitro, while caudal sternal chondrocytes did not.

Unusual DNA sequences located within the promoter region and the first intron of the chicken pro-alpha 1(I) collagen gene.

Genomic clones corresponding to the amino-terminal propeptide and 5'-flanking sequences of the chicken pro-alpha 1(I) collagen gene were isolated as a first step in the identification of DNA sequences important for transcriptional regulation of the pro-alpha 1(I) collagen gene. Due to the failure to identify positive clones in either primary or amplified genomic libraries, a 5.1-kilobase pair StuI genomic fragment identified by Southern blotting was enriched by sucrose gradient fractionation of genomic DNA and cloned into lambda gt11.

Rous sarcoma virus is integrated but not expressed in chicken early embryonic cells.

We have developed a protocol that allows us to infect chicken early embryonic (CEE) cells with high efficiency. This was achieved by exposing the CEE cells to a semicontinuous dose of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) for a period of 20 hr. Southern blot analysis indicated that an average of one proviral copy is integrated per embryonic cell.

Construction and characterization of cDNA clones encoding the 5' end of the chicken pro alpha 1(I) collagen mRNA.

As a first step in isolating the 5' end of the chicken pro alpha 1(I) collagen gene, we constructed cDNA clones complementary to the 5' end of the pro alpha 1(I) mRNA using synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides complementary to a conserved region within the N-terminal telopeptide as primers. cDNA clones corresponding to the 5'-untranslated region, signal peptide, N-propeptide and telopeptide were identified based on homology with the human pro alpha 1(I) collagen protein sequence, and on hybridization to pro alpha 1(I) mRNA on Northern blots. A comparison of the nucleotide sequence of these clones with the sequence of the 5' end of the pro alpha 2(I) collagen mRNA confirms that there is 84% homology in a 49-bp region surrounding the translation start point, and shows that there is 70% homology in the nucleotide sequences encoding the N-propeptide triple helical region of the two type-I collagen chains.