S. Freundlieb et al., A tetracycline controlled activation/repression system with increased potential for gene transfer into mammalian cells, J GENE MED, 1(1), 1999, pp. 4-12
Background Tight control of gene activity has been achieved in cells and tr
ansgenic organisms using the Tet regulatory systems. Unregulated basal tran
scription can, however, be observed whenever integration of target genes dr
iven by promoters responsive to tetracycline controlled transcriptional act
ivators (tTA, rtTA) does not occur at suitable chromosomal sites. Moreover,
in viral vectors containing both the tTA coding sequence and the regulated
target gene, proximity of the enhancer element driving tTA/rtTA expression
to the responsive unit will lead to elevated background levels. Similarly
when tTA/rtTA responsive transcription units are in a nonintegrated state a
s eg., during transient expression, intrinsic residual transcription persis
ts in their 'off' state, which can differ in intensity among different cell
types.
Methods To efficiently repress such background activities we generated tetr
acycline controlled transcriptional silencers (tTS) that bind promoters res
ponsive for rtTA in absence of the effector doxycycline (Dox). Addition of
Dox prevents binding of tTS thus relieving repression, promotes binding of
rtTA and thereby switches the promoter from an actively repressed to an act
ivated state.
Results Of several tTS - fusions between a modified Tet repressor and trans
criptional silencing domains - tTS(Kid) was found to be most effective in r
educing the activity of two target promoters. Ten to 200 fold repression is
seen in transient expression whereas in stably transfected HeLa cells the
regulatory range of the rtTA system was increased by three orders of magnit
ude.
Conclusions The new system appears particularly suited for the transfer of
toxic genes into appropriate chromosomal sites as well as for tight regulat
ion of genes carried by viral or episomal vectors. Copyright (C) 1999 John
Wiley & Sons Ltd.