Construction of heteroduplex DNA and<Emphasis Type="Italic">in vitro</Emphasis> model for functional analysis of mismatch repair

Functional deficiency of mismatch repair (MMR) system is one of the mechanisms of tumorigenesis. With the development of the investigation and the requirement from the clinical diagnosis and treatment it is necessary to build up a method to evaluate the functional status of the whole MMR system in the concerned tumors. The original ssDNA and dsDNA from wild type (wt) bacteriophage M13mp2 and its three derivates with mutation points in the lacZα gene have been used to construct two kinds of hetero-duplex DNA molecules. One named del(2) has two bases deleted in the negative strand, the other has a G·G mismatch base pair in the negative strand too. Introducing this heteroduplex DNA into E. coli NR9162 (mutS-) without the MMR ability on the indicator plate with x-gal and IPTG, there are three kinds of plaques, mixture plaque as the characteristic phenotype of heteroduplex DNA, blue and clear plaques. If the cell extract is mismatch repair competent the percentage of the mixture plaque will decrease after incubation with these heteroduplex DNA, the repair efficiency is expressed in percentage as 100× (1 minus the ratio of percentages of mixture plaque obtained from the extract-treated sample and untreated samples), which can imply the functional status of MMR system of certain samples. After large T-antigen-dependent SV-40 DNA replication assay cell extract from TK6, a human lymphoblastoid B-cell lymphoma cell line with MMR ability, and Lovo, a human colonic carcinoma cell line with MMR deficiency have incubated with these heteroduplex DNA. The repair efficiency of TK6 to del(2) is more than 60%, to G-G is more than 50%. The Lovo efficiency to del(2) is less than 10%, to G-G is less than 20%. Therefore, in this in vitro model used for functional analysis of mismatch repair of heteroduplex DNA as the repair target, TK6 can serve as the control for MMR proficiency and Lovo as the control for MMR deficiency. Using this model the tumor tissue from a case of hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (microsatellite instability high, MSI-H) was measured and lack of MMR ability was shown. And a case of sporadic rectal cancer (SRC) (microsatellite stability, MSS) maintains MMR proficiency. The results indicate that the model is sensitive and dependable. It could be used to measure the func- tion status of MMR system in tumor cell and/or tissues. This is a reliable method to investigate the mechanic of tumori-genesis. It is meaningful in the observation of the role of MMR in the initiation and progression of concerned tumors.     

cdx4 mutants fail to specify blood progenitors and can be rescued by multiple hox genes

Organogenesis is dependent on the formation of distinct cell types within the embryo. Important to this process are the hox genes, which are believed to confer positional identities to cells along the anteroposterior axis. Here, we have identified the caudal-related gene cdx4 as the locus mutated in kugelig (kgg), a zebrafish mutant with an early defect in haematopoiesis that is associated with abnormal anteroposterior patterning and aberrant hox gene expression. The blood deficiency in kgg embryos can be rescued by overexpressing hoxb7a or hoxa9a but not hoxb8a, indicating that the haematopoietic defect results from perturbations in specific hox genes. Furthermore, the haematopoietic defect in kgg mutants is not rescued by scl overexpression, suggesting that cdx4 and hox genes act to make the posterior mesoderm competent for blood development. Overexpression of cdx4 during zebrafish development or in mouse embryonic stem cells induces blood formation and alters hox gene expression. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that cdx4 regulates hox genes and is necessary for the specification of haematopoietic cell fate during vertebrate embryogenesis.