Cell cycle regulation of transfected murine dihydrofolate reductase genes.

We have used the technique of DNA-mediated gene transfer to introduce dihydrofolate reductase genes into dihydrofolate reductase-deficient Chinese hamster ovary cells. The transferred sequences include: dihydrofolate reductase minigenes, dihydrofolate reductase cDNA clones, and genomic DNA from mouse cells with highly amplified dihydrofolate reductase genes. The hamster cells were capable of utilizing the murine transcription initiation sites, splice junctions, and polyadenylation sites in complete murine dihydrofolate reductase genes. Only a short region of 5'-flanking sequence (160 base pairs (bp] was sufficient for proper initiation of dihydrofolate reductase transcription. In contrast only those clones with all of the dihydrofolate reductase introns and extensive (greater than 6.5 kilobase pairs) 3'-flanking regions utilized the dihydrofolate reductase polyadenylylation sites. Four of nine clones tested regulate the transfected genes normally, synthesizing dihydrofolate reductase preferentially at the onset of S phase. Regulated genes include one which entirely lacks intervening sequences, two with fewer than 420 bp of 5'-flanking sequence, and two in which polyadenylylation occurs predominantly in the adjacent hamster sequences. Two of the five cell lines which do not exhibit normal regulation contain genes which appear to be transcribed primarily from promoters present in the flanking hamster DNA. The other genes which fail to regulate do not appear to differ significantly in the structure of their transcripts or protein products from genes which regulate normally. We conclude that only the coding sequences, a region of less than 340 bp of sequence 5' of the translation initiation codon, and a short region of 3'-flanking sequence are required for regulated production of dihydrofolate reductase. The regulation can be abolished, however, by unknown properties of the site of insertion.