Sequence requirements for transcriptional arrest in exon 1 of the murine adenosine deaminase gene.

We have previously shown that a transcription arrest site near the 5' end of the murine adenosine deaminase (ADA) gene is significantly involved in the regulation of ADA gene expression. To facilitate the analysis of this transcription arrest site, we have analyzed the transcription products from cloned ADA gene fragments injected into Xenopus laevis oocytes. When genomic fragments spanning the 5' end of the ADA gene were injected into oocytes, a 96-nucleotide (nt) ADA RNA was the major transcription product. The 5' end of this RNA mapped to the transcription initiation site for the ADA gene, and its 3' terminus mapped 7 nt downstream of the translation initiation codon within exon 1. A 300-base-pair fragment of genomic DNA spanning the 5' end of the ADA gene was sufficient to generate the 96-nt transcript which accounted for approximately one-half of the transcription products from injected templates. Deletion of a segment of approximately 65 base pairs, located immediately downstream of the 3' terminus of the 96-nt transcript, resulted in a substantial reduction in the synthesis of the 96-nt transcript and a corresponding increase in the production of larger transcripts. These studies show that the transcriptional apparatus of X. laevis oocytes responds to the transcription arrest site associated with exon 1 of the murine ADA gene and that oocyte injections provide a convenient functional assay for additional mechanistic studies.