Cloning of mouse DAN cDNA and its down-regulation in transformed cells

Neural induction and early patterning in vertebrates

In vertebrates, the development of the nervous system is triggered by signals from a powerful 'organizing' region of the early embryo during gastrulation. This phenomenon--neural induction--was originally discovered and given conceptual definition by experimental embryologists working with amphibian embryos. Work on the molecular circuitry underlying neural induction, also in the same model system, demonstrated that elimination of ongoing transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) signaling in the ectoderm is the hallmark of anterior neural-fate acquisition. This observation is the basis of the 'default' model of neural induction. Endogenous neural inducers are secreted proteins that act to inhibit TGFβ ligands in the dorsal ectoderm. In the ventral ectoderm, where the signaling ligands escape the inhibitors, a non-neural fate is induced. Inhibition of the TGFβ pathway has now been demonstrated to be sufficient to directly induce neural fate in mammalian embryos as well as pluripotent mouse and human embryonic stem cells. Hence the molecular process that delineates neural from non-neural ectoderm is conserved across a broad range of organisms in the evolutionary tree. The availability of embryonic stem cells from mouse, primates, and humans will facilitate further understanding of the role of signaling pathways and their downstream mediators in neural induction in vertebrate embryos.

DAN directs endolymphatic sac and duct outgrowth in the avian inner ear

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are expressed in the developing vertebrate inner ear and participate in inner ear axial patterning and the development of its sensory epithelium. BMP antagonists, such as noggin, chordin, gremlin, cerberus, and DAN (differential screening-selected gene aberrative in neuroblastoma) inhibit BMP activity and establish morphogenetic gradients during the patterning of many developing tissues and organs. In this study, the role of the BMP antagonist DAN in inner ear development was investigated. DAN-expressing cell pellets were implanted into the otocyst and the periotic mesenchyme to determine the effects of exogenous DAN on otic development. Similar to the effects on the inner ear seen after exposure of otocysts to the BMP4 antagonist noggin, semicircular canals were truncated or eliminated based upon the site of pellet implantation. Unique to the DAN implantations, however, were effects on the developing endolymphatic duct and sac. In DAN-treated inner ears, endolymphatic ducts and sacs were merged with the crus or grew into the superior semicircular canal. Both the canal and endolymphatic duct and sac effects were rescued by joint implantation of BMP4-expressing cells. Electroporation of DAN antisense morpholinos into the epithelium of stage 15-17 otocysts, blocking DAN protein synthesis, resulted in enlarged endolymphatic ducts and sacs as well as smaller semicircular canals in some cases. Taken together, these data suggest a role for DAN both in helping to regulate BMP activity spatially and temporally and in patterning and partitioning of the medial otic tissue between the endolymphatic duct/sac and medially derived inner ear structures.

Cloning and expression analysis of the chick DAN gene, an antagonist of the BMP family of growth factors

Differential screening-selected gene aberrative in neuroblastoma (DAN) is a member of a cystine knot protein family that includes Cerberus and Gremlin. First isolated in a screen to identify genes down-regulated in transformed rat fibroblasts, DAN has subsequently been cloned in Xenopus, mouse, and human. Overexpression of DAN suppresses the transformed phenotype and retards the cell's entry into S phase. Biochemical analyses have demonstrated DAN's ability to bind bone morphogenetic proteins and antagonize their signaling activity. In this study, chick DAN was cloned and sequenced, revealing a conserved cystine knot region as well as an N-glycosylation site. A riboprobe was designed from the 3' chick DAN coding sequence and used for analysis of DAN in the developing chick embryo by in situ hybridization. Chick DAN was expressed beginning at stage 10 in the developing somites and the medial otic epithelium. Expression in the neural layer of the eye became apparent at stage 14. By stage 17, expression had expanded to the base of the hindbrain. Limb bud labeling began at stage 20, whereas expression in the branchial arches appeared at stage 25. Chick DAN expression generally corresponded to that of mouse DAN expression as shown by comparative in situ hybridization. However, chick DAN was found in the otic epithelium and notochord, whereas mouse DAN was restricted to the overlying otic ectomesenchyme and was absent from the notochord. This observation suggests that DAN may play different roles in chick and mouse otic and notochord development.

Expression of the Dan gene during chicken embryonic development

The Dan gene was first identified as the putative rat tumor suppressor gene and encodes a protein structurally related to Cerberus and Gremlin in vertebrates. Xenopus DAN, as with Cerberus and Gremlin, was demonstrated to block bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling by binding BMPs, and to be capable of inducing additional anterior structures by ectopic overexpression in Xenopus embryos. DAN, thus, is suggested to play pivotal roles in early patterning and subsequent organ development, as in the case of other BMP antagonists. In this report, we isolated the chicken counterpart of Dan. Chicken Dan is mainly expressed in the cephalic and somitic mesoderm and several placodes during organ development.

Purification and partial amino acid sequence of proteins from human epidermal keratinocyte conditioned medium

Keratinocytes are the main cell type of the epidermis. They secrete a variety of proteins and peptides that have diverse roles in epidermal physiology. In this report, we present purification and partial amino acid sequence of LEKTI, a serine proteinase inhibitor, and DAN (NO3) zinc-finger protein, a tumor suppressor protein of neuroblastoma, from human keratinocyte conditioned medium. Epidermal keratinocytes were isolated from human foreskin and serially passaged in a defined medium (MSBM). At confluence of the fourth passage, MSBM medium was replaced with protein-free Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium/F12 (DMEM:F12) 3:1 base medium and collected every 24 h for 4 days. Medium was pooled and concentrated using a stirred cell concentrator. Concentrated medium was diluted 1:1 in 50 mM sodium phosphate, pH 8 buffer, and loaded onto a preparative heparin affinity column. Proteins/peptides were purified from heparin column passthrough by the combination of preparative and analytical FPLC-based gel filtration chromatography and reversed-phase HPLC. Samples electroblotted onto a PVDF support were sequenced by Edman degradation in a gas-phase sequencing system.

A novel chordin-like protein inhibitor for bone morphogenetic proteins expressed preferentially in mesenchymal cell lineages

Chordin is a bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) inhibitor that has been identified as a factor dorsalizing the Xenopus embryo. A novel secreted protein, CHL (for chordin-like), with significant homology to chordin, was isolated from mouse bone marrow stromal cells. Injection of CHL RNA into Xenopus embryos induced a secondary axis. Recombinant CHL protein inhibited the BMP4-dependent differentiation of embryonic stem cells in vitro and interacted directly with BMPs, similar to chordin. However, CHL also weakly bound to TGFbetas. In situ hybridization revealed that the mouse CHL gene, located on the X chromosome, was expressed predominantly in mesenchyme-derived cell types: (1) the dermatome and limb bud mesenchyme and, later, the subdermal mesenchyme and the chondrocytes of the developing skeleton during embryogenesis and (2) a layer of fibroblasts/connective tissue cells in the gastrointestinal tract, the thick straight segments of kidney tubules, and the marrow stromal cells in adults. An exception was expression in the neural cells of the olfactory bulb and cerebellum. Interestingly, the spatiotemporal expression patterns of CHL were distinct from those of chordin in many areas examined. Thus, CHL may serve as an important BMP regulator for differentiating mesenchymal cells, especially during skeletogenesis, and for developing specific neurons.

Overexpression of DAN causes a growth suppression in p53-deficient SAOS-2 cells

It has been shown that the expression of DAN as well as Drm/Gremlin, a member of DAN/Cerberus family, is significantly down-regulated in rodent fibroblasts transformed with various oncogenes and overexpression of DAN results in the phenotypic reversion of the transformed phenotypes. In the present study, we examined the expression levels of DAN, BMP-2, BMP-4, and BMPRs (BMP receptors) in five human cell lines derived from bone and soft tissue tumors. Northern blot analysis revealed that DAN mRNA was detected in OS-KH and RMS-NK cells, but was not detectable in SAOS-2, NOS-1, and ASPS-KY cells. Transient overexpression of DAN in SAOS-2 cells, which lack functional p53 and pRB, resulted in a remarkable growth suppression without the induction of p21(Waf1). Interestingly, overexpression of DAN was associated with a reduction of alkaline phosphatase activity in SAOS-2 cells. Stable transfection of DAN in SAOS-2 cells caused a significant reduction of numbers of drug-resistant colonies, whereas the truncated form of DAN which lacked a possible signal peptide, completely lost this capability. Our results suggest that the secreted form of DAN exerts its growth-suppressive function in SAOS-2 cells in a p53-independent manner.

Cloning and characterization of rat BAT3 cDNA

HLA-B-associated transcript 3 (BAT3) was originally identified as one of the genes located within human major histocompatibility complex. It encodes a large proline-rich protein with unknown function. In this study, we found that a fragment of the BAT3 gene product interacts with a candidate tumor suppressor, DAN, in the yeast-based two-hybrid system. We cloned the full-length rat BAT3 cDNA from a fibroblast 3Y1 cDNA library. Our sequence analysis has demonstrated that rat BAT3 cDNA is 3617 nucleotides in length and encodes a full-length BAT3 (1098 amino acids) with an estimated molecular mass of 114,801 daltons, which displays an 87.4% identity with human BAT3. The deletion experiment revealed that the N-terminal region (amino acid residues 1-80) of DAN was required for the interaction with BAT3. Green fluorescent protein-tagged BAT3 was largely localized in the cytoplasm of COS cells. Northern hybridization showed that BAT3 mRNA was expressed in all the adult rat tissues examined but predominantly in testis. In addition, the level of BAT3 mRNA expression was more downregulated in some of the transformed cells, including v-mos- and v-Ha-ras-transformed 3Y1 cells, than in the parental cells.

A mouse cerberus/Dan-related gene family

The Xenopus cerberus gene is able to induce ectopic heads in Xenopus embryos. At the time of its identification, cerberus shared significant homology with only one other protein, the putative rat tumor suppressor protein Dan. Sequence analysis has revealed that cerberus and Dan are members of a family of predicted secreted proteins, here called the can family. The identification of a can-family member in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, CeCan1, suggests that this family is of ancient origin. In the mouse, there are at least five family members: Cer1, Drm, PRDC, Dan, and Dte. These genes are expressed in patterns that suggest that they may play important roles in patterning the developing embryo. Cer1 marks the anterior visceral endoderm at E6.5. Dte is expressed asymmetrically in the developing node. Dan is first seen in the head mesoderm of early head fold stage embryos and Drm is expressed in the lateral paraxial mesoderm at E8.5. The region of homology shared by these genes, here called the can domain, closely resembles the cysteine knot motif found in a number of signaling molecules, such as members of the TGFbeta superfamily. Epitope-tagged versions of Cer1 show that, unlike in TGFbeta superfamily members, the cysteine knot motif is not processed away from a proprotein. Recent experiments in Xenopus have suggested that cerberus may act as an inhibitor of BMP signaling. To examine this further, the ability of Dan, Cer1, and human DRM to attenuate Bmp4 signaling has been assessed in P19 cells using pTlx-Lux, a BMP-responsive reporter. All three genes are able to inhibit Bmp4 signaling. These data suggest that the different family members may act to modulate the action of TGFbeta family members during development.

DAN is a secreted glycoprotein related to Xenopus cerberus

We report that DAN, a potential cell cycle regulator and tumour suppressor, is a secreted glycoprotein related to Xenopus cerberus. DAN, cerberus, its mouse relative Cer-1/cer-l/Cerberus-like/Cerr1, and the recently described factor DRM/Gremlin, appear to be members of the cystine knot superfamily, which includes TGFbetas and BMPs. Like cerberus and mCer-1, DAN-induced cement glands as well as markers of anterior neural tissue and endoderm in Xenopus animal cap assays, features of BMP signalling blockade. During mouse embryogenesis, Dan was expressed from E8.5 in cranial mesenchyme and somites, then later in limb and facial mesenchyme. The pattern in somites was highly dynamic, with transcripts initially localized to the caudal half of the nascent epithelial somite, then, after maturation, to sclerotomal cells adjacent to the neural tube. Dan was also expressed in the developing myotome. The expression domains include sites in which BMP inhibition is known to be important for development. Thus, DAN appears to be a secreted factor belonging to the cystine knot superfamily, and one of a growing number of antagonists acting to modulate BMP signalling during development.

Sequence and expression of a novel mouse gene PRDC (protein related to DAN and cerberus) identified by a gene trap approach

Gene trapping in embryonic stem (ES) cells was used to identify a novel gene involved in mouse development. In order to screen trapped ES cell lines for the presence of developmentally regulated genes, an in vitro differentiation test was used. One of the G418 resistant cell lines, in conjunction with the lacZ reporter gene, showed differential expression patterns under differentiated and undifferentiated conditions. The gene trap insertion in this cell line was germ-line transmitted and X-gal staining was used to assess the expression pattern of lacZ in embryos heterozygous for the trapped allele. The reporter gene's expression was detected in commissural neurons in the developing spinal cord, suggesting functions for the trapped gene in mouse neural development. Structural analysis of the cDNA revealed that this trapped gene, named PRDC (protein related to DAN and cerberus), is a novel gene that encodes a putative secretory protein consisting of 168 amino acid residues. PRDC gene product shows limited similarities to the products of DAN (differential screening-selected gene aberrative in neuroblastoma) and cerberus. (DAN is a possible tumor-suppressor for neuroblastoma in human. Cerberus can induce an ectopic head in Xenopus embryos when ectopically expressed.) These three gene products may form a novel family of signaling molecules.

The Xenopus dorsalizing factor Gremlin identifies a novel family of secreted proteins that antagonize BMP activities

Using a Xenopus expression-cloning screen, we have isolated Gremlin, a novel antagonist of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling that is expressed in the neural crest. Gremlin belongs to a novel gene family that includes the head-inducing factor Cerberus and the tumor suppressor DAN. We show that all family members are secreted proteins and that they act as BMP antagonists in embryonic explants. We also provide support for the model that Gremlin, Cerberus, and DAN block BMP signaling by binding BMPs, preventing them from interacting with their receptors. In addition, Cerberus alone blocks signaling by Activin- and Nodal-like members of the TGF beta superfamily. Therefore, we propose that Gremlin, Cerberus, and DAN control diverse processes in growth and development by selectively antagonizing the activities of different subsets of the TGF beta ligands.

Ectopic expression of DAN enhances the retinoic acid-induced neuronal differentiation in human neuroblastoma cell lines

Retinoic acid (RA) plays a major role in neuronal cell differentiation. Neuroblastoma cells differentiate in vitro by extending neurites and forming ganglion-like aggregates in response to RA. In the present study, we have examined a biological role(s) of DAN in the regulation of RA-mediated cellular differentiation in neuroblastoma cells. RTBM1 and SH-SY5Y cells undergo marked morphological changes associated with a remarkable induction of DAN gene expression when exposed to RA. By transfecting an expression vector harboring a rat DAN cDNA into SH-SY5Y cells, we have obtained two independent transfectants which express a large amount of DAN. The forced expression of DAN gene enhanced the neurite extension in the presence of RA, suggesting that DAN gene product might contain some regulatory role(s) in the RA-induced cellular differentiation in neuroblastoma cells.

A product of DAN, a novel candidate tumour suppressor gene, is secreted into culture medium and suppresses DNA synthesis

Our previous studies have shown that the DAN gene product possesses an ability to revert phenotypes of transformed rat fibroblasts and represents a candidate tumour suppressor gene for neuroblastoma. In the present study, characterisation of DAN was carried out using rat fibroblast 3Y1 cells and their DAN-overexpressor counterparts (S-9). The N-terminal region of DAN (amino acids 1-24) was highly hydrophobic and DAN protein was found to be secreted into the culture medium. When DAN was treated with PNGase F, a enzyme that cleaves most N-linked carbohydrate residues, the mobility of both cytoplasmic and secreted DAN was increased in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, suggesting DAN is N-glycosylated, irrespective of its localisation. When partially purified, DAN was able, when added to the culture, to suppress DNA synthesis of Rous sarcoma virus-transformed 3Y1 cells, which lack the expression of DAN.

The genomic analysis of human DAN gene

DAN gene is shown to be localized at human chromosome 1p36.11-p36.13, which resides within the consensus deletion observed in neuroblastoma. In the present study, we have isolated the genomic DNA containing the entire human DAN gene and determined its nucleotide sequence. Structural analysis revealed that DAN gene is composed of four exons and spans approximately 15 kb. Its overall structure was basically the same as that of rat DAN gene. Two distinct transcription initiation sites (major and minor) were identified by the primer extension experiment. Putative TATA and CAAT-like elements are present 38 and 366 bp upstream from the major transcription start site, respectively, however, no apparent TATA-like sequence was found in the upstream region of the minor transcription start site. The 400-bp region immediately upstream from the major transcription initiation site was strongly GC-rich (79% GC). Genomic Southern experiments demonstrated that the allelic loss of DAN gene might occur in neuroblastoma. Interestingly, there exist two dinucleotide repeats, (CA)7 and (CA)8, in the first intron of DAN gene, raising the possibility to distinguish two alleles of DAN gene in some of the cancer cells.

Identification of a new cellular protein that can interact specifically with DAN

Recently, we demonstrated that the DAN gene product contains a growth- and/or a tumor-suppressive activity in vitro. In the present work, using a yeast two-hybrid system, we searched for cellular proteins that can associate with the DAN gene product. A cDNA clone, termed DA41, was initially isolated from an adult rat lung cDNA library. The DA41 gene was expressed in all adult tissues examined, however, the levels of expression varied significantly among the different tissues. Like the DAN gene product, the DA41 protein was similarly restricted to the cytoplasm. Sequence analysis revealed that DA41 cDNA is 2,167 nucleotides in length and contains a single open reading frame (ORF) of 582 amino acids (61,945 daltons). A homology search revealed that the DA41 gene product shares no structural similarity with those filed in the data base. In a synchronous 3Y1 cell culture, DA41 mRNA was expressed at a low level in quiescent cells; however, its level was significantly increased between the G1 and S phases of the cell cycle. On the other hand, the expression level of DAN mRNA did not change throughout the cell cycle progression. These results suggest that the DAN-DA41 complex might play a crucial role in the regulation of the cell cycle progression.

Identification of essential cis-acting regulatory elements for transcription of the rat DAN gene

The DAN gene was initially isolated as one of the genes whose expression is significantly decreased in a variety of transformed rat fibroblasts 3Y1 cells when compared with the parental 3Y1 cells. In the present study, we have isolated the genomic clone of the DAN gene from a 3Y1 genomic library and characterized the possible regulatory elements responsible for the transcription of the DAN gene. The transcription initiation site was determined by a primer extension experiment. Putative TATA and CAAT-like elements were present 31 and 358 bp upstream from the transcription start site, respectively. Transient transfection of a series of DAN-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene constructs, which contain different portions of the 5'-flanking region (2,236 bp) of the DAN gene and the CAT gene, was used to localize a regulatory element. These experiments demonstrated the presence of the regions that regulate DAN gene expression positively (-57 to +118) and negatively (-1,232 to -636). The electrophoretic mobility-shift assays revealed that 3Y1 and SR-3Y1 nuclear extracts specifically interact with the positive (-57 to +118) and the negative (-1,226 to -987) regulatory regions, respectively.