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A human myosin heavy-chain gene, cloned in gamma Charon 4A phage (and as a clone designated lambda gMHC-1), was shown to code for a cardiac myosin heavy chain of the beta-type. The 5' end of the 14,200-base-pair genomic DNA clone is located in the head region of the myosin chain. The 3' end was shown to extent to the COOH terminus and includes the 3'-nontranslated sequence of the corresponding mRNA. The identification of lambda gMHC-1 as coding for a cardiac beta-myosin heavy chain was achieved by heteroduplex mapping using genomic cardiac myosin heavy-chain DNA of rabbit as a probe and, furthermore, by DNA sequence analysis of three selected subregions of the clones DNA including the 3'-nontranslated sequence. It was demonstrated by the S1 nuclease protection technique that the beta-myosin heavy-chain gene is transcribed in human heart muscle. In addition, we have found by the same technique that it is also expressed in human skeletal muscle.

We have examined the transcriptional regulation of the rabbit myosin heavy chain (HC) beta gene by using DNA-mediated transfection experiments. To analyze the activity of the myosin HC beta promoter in a myogenic background, cultured myoblasts from 12-day-old chick embryonic breast muscle were transfected with a chimeric gene containing 781 base pairs of the promoter region fused to the gene for chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT). As indicated by the transient expression of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase, the activity of the promoter in myoblast cultures increased at least 32-fold following differentiation and was selectively inhibited when myogenesis was blocked with 5-bromodeoxyuridine. Furthermore, RNase protection experiments showed that the in vivo myosin HC beta transcriptional initiation (or cap) site was utilized in the transfected skeletal muscle cells and also that the regulation of the exogenous promoter was similar to the induction of the endogenous skeletal alpha-actin gene. The results indicated that the exogenous promoter is regulated in a tissue- and stage-specific manner. By creating progressive 5' deletions of the promoter, we showed that only the region extending -294 base pairs upstream from the cap site is necessary for the muscle-specific expression. Linker-scanner mutagenesis of this region indicated that the positive regulation in differentiated skeletal muscle is mediated by at least two distinct elements within the 5'-flanking region of the myosin HC beta gene.

Two cardiac myosin heavy chain cDNA clones, pMHC alpha 252 and pMHC beta 174, were constructed using rabbit ventricular mRNA isolated from adult thyrotoxic and normal hearts, respectively. The complete DNA sequences of the 2.2- and 1.4-kilobase inserts of pMHC beta 174 and pMHC alpha 252, respectively, were obtained. The 736 amino acids specified by pMHC beta 174 begin 439 (1.3 kilobases) residues from the heavy chain NH2 terminus and include a 400-amino acid segment of subfragment 1 and the entire subfragment 2 region. Clone pMHC alpha 252 encodes 465 amino acids encompassing all of subfragment 2 and a portion of light meromyosin. Comparison of these two clones revealed extensive sequence overlap which included 1107 nucleotides specifying a 369-amino acid segment corresponding to subfragment 2. Within this region 78 (7%) base and 32 (8.7%) amino acid mismatches were noted. These differences were clustered within discrete regions, with the subfragment 1/subfragment 2 junctional region being particularly divergent. Structural differences between pMHC alpha 252 and pMHC beta 174 indicate that these two clones represent two similar but distinct myosin heavy chain genes whose expression is responsible for ventricular myosin heavy chain isoforms alpha and beta, respectively. The derived amino acid sequences of both clones exhibit extensive homology (greater than 81%) with sequences obtained by direct analysis of adult rabbit skeletal muscle myosin heavy chain protein. The sequences corresponding to the subfragment 2 region are consistent with an alpha-helical conformation with a characteristic 7-residue periodicity in the linear distribution of nonpolar amino acids. Conversely, subfragment 1 sequences specified by pMHC beta 174 suggest a folded highly irregular structure.