An Additional Form of Rat Bcl-x, Bcl-xβ, Generated by an Unspliced RNA, Promotes Apoptosis in Promyeloid Cells

The bcl-2 oncogene product delays apoptotic cell death and prolongs the cell survival. We cloned two bcl-2-related cDNAs from a rat thymus cDNA library by low stringency hybridization with a rat bcl-2 fragment as a probe. One of these, designated bcl-x alpha , was a counterpart of the human bcl-x su...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of biological chemistry 1996, Vol.271 (22), p.13258-13265
Main Authors: Shiraiwa, Nobuko, Inohara, Naohiro, Okada, Seiji, Yuzaki, Michisuke, Shoji, Shin-ichi, Ohta, Shigeo
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The bcl-2 oncogene product delays apoptotic cell death and prolongs the cell survival. We cloned two bcl-2-related cDNAs from a rat thymus cDNA library by low stringency hybridization with a rat bcl-2 fragment as a probe. One of these, designated bcl-x alpha , was a counterpart of the human bcl-x sub(L) reported previously as a bcl-2-related gene. The other, designated bcl-x beta , was novel and found to be generated by an unspliced mRNA, whereas bcl-x alpha was generated from a spliced transcript. The splice junction exactly corresponded to that found in the bcl-2 gene. bcl-x beta was specifically expressed in cerebellum, heart, and thymus. When bcl-x beta directed by a strong promoter was introduced into an interleukin-3-dependent promyeloid cell line, FDC-P1, DNA fragmentation was observed even in the growing state in the presence of interleukin-3 although not in the control transfectants. This finding suggests that the rat bcl-x beta gene product promotes apoptosis in the promyeloid cells.
ISSN:0021-9258
DOI:10.1074/jbc.271.22.13258