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CNES, LKB and SYRTE are developing a primary frequency standard, called PHARAO, which is specially designed for space applications. The clock signal is referenced on the frequency measurement of the hyperfine transition performed on a cloud of cold cesium PHARAO : LE PREMIER ETALON PRIMAIRE DE FREQUENCE, A ATOMES FROIDS, SPATIAL 3 atoms (∼1 μK). The transition is induced by an external field feeding a Ramsey cavity. In microgravity the interaction time inside the cavity can be adjusted over two orders of magnitude by changing the atomic velocity (5 cm·s−1–5 m·s−1) in order to study the ultimate performances of the clock. An engineering model has been assembled to validate the architecture of the clock. This model has been fully tested on ground for operation faults. Of course the clock performances are reduced by the effect of the gravity on the moving atoms. The main results are a frequency stability of 3.3× 10−13t−1/2. The main systematic effects have been analyzed and their frequency uncertainties contribution is 1.6 × 10−15. The clock has been compared with the primary frequency standard, the mobile fountain of SYRTE. The mean frequency shift is lower than 2 × 10−15. The mechanical and thermal space qualifications have been carried out by testing a representative mechanical model of the clock and by using refined calculations. The design of the clock has been improved and now the flight model is being assembled. The PHARAO clock is a key instrument of the European ESA space mission called ACES. This mission is dedicated to perform space-time measurements in order to test some fundamental physics aspects.

International audience; Activation of Stat5 by many cytokines implies that it cannot alone insure the specificity of the regulation of its target genes. We have evidenced a physical and functional interaction between members of two unrelated transcription factor families, Ets-1, Ets-2 and Stat5, which could contribute to the proliferative response to interleukin 2. Competition with GAS- and EBS-specific oligonucleotides and immunoassays with a set of anti-Stat and anti-Ets families revealed that the IL-2-induced Stat5-Ets complex recognizes several GAS motifs identified as target sites for activated Stat5 dimers. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments evidenced that a Stat5/Ets-1/2 complex is formed in vivo in absence of DNA. GST-pull down experiments demonstrated that the C-terminal domain of Ets-1 is sufficient for this interaction in vitro. Cotransfection experiments in Kit225 T cells resulted in cooperative transcriptional activity between both transcription factors in response to a combination of IL-2, PMA and ionomycin. A Stat5-Ets protein complex was the major inducible DNA-binding complex bound to the human IL-2rE GASd/EBSd motif in long-term proliferating normal human T cells activated by CD2 and CD28. These results suggest that the inducible Stat5-Ets protein interaction plays a role in the regulation of gene expression in response to IL-2 in human T lymphocytes.

International audience; c-Rmil is the cellular allele of the v-Rmil oncogene, transduced during in vitro passaging of Rous associated virus type 1 in chicken embryonic neuroretina (NR) cells. The c-Rmil proto-oncogene is the avian homolog of the mammalian B-raf gene and belongs to the mil/raf oncogene family of serine/threonine protein kinases. We recently reported that the avian c-Rmil gene encodes two proteins of 94 and 95 kDa, resulting from an alternative splicing mechanism. We describe here the exon-intron organization of the coding region of the chicken c-Rmil locus. We show that c-Rmil proteins are encoded by 19 exons lying within about 100 kbp of genomic DNA. Comparison of the organization of this gene with those of the other mil/raf genes shows strong similarities within three conserved domains previously identified in mil/raf protein kinases. However, c-Rmil contains two additional 5' coding exons that are not present in the other mil/raf genes.

International audience; Replication of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) in avian fibroblasts leads to the generation of replication-competent variants that are defective for cell transformation (td virus). These td variants contain deletions affecting various portions of the v-src gene. We compared the rate of td virus production in Q3B cells, a quail cell line established by mutagen treatment, and in normal quail fibroblasts. Twenty-five days after infection with an RSV stock containing only transforming virions, Q3B cells harbor similar amounts of v-src-containing and v-src-deleted proviruses. However, these cells synthesize very low levels of p60v-src and generate large excess of td variants, as determined by biological assays. Unlike Q3B cells, normal quail fibroblasts infected with the same virus stock produce td variants only after multiple passages of undiluted virus on fresh cells. Restriction analysis showed that the td virus produced by Q3B cells is composed of two types of genomes: one lacking the entire v-src gene and the other carrying partial deletions of this gene predominantly located in the amino-terminal portion of the coding region of v-src. To study the mechanisms of these partial deletions, we molecularly cloned and sequenced the v-src genes of several td proviruses. We show that these mutants carry single or multiple v-src deletions of limited size, presumably generated by multiple mechanisms. Two deletions of 170 and 112 bp located in the 5' portion of v-src are frequently generated during RSV replication in Q3B cells and may represent preferential sites for v-src deletion in these cells.

International audience; Carcinoma progression is associated with the loss of epithelial features, and the acquisition of mesenchymal characteristics and invasive properties by tumour cells. The loss of cell-cell contacts may be the first step of the epithelium mesenchyme transition (EMT) and involves the functional inactivation of the cell-cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin. Repression of E-cadherin expression by the transcription factor Snail is a central event during the loss of epithelial phenotype. Akt kinase activation is frequent in human carcinomas, and Akt regulates various cellular mechanisms including EMT. Here, we show that Snail activation and consequent repression of E-cadherin may depend on AKT-mediated nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) activation, and that NF-kappaB induces Snail expression. Expression of the NF-kappaB subunit p65 is sufficient for EMT induction, validating this signalling module during EMT. NF-kappaB pathway activation is associated with tumour progression and metastasis of several human tumour types; E-cadherin acts as a metastasis suppressor protein. Thus, this signalling and transcriptional network linking AKT, NF-kappaB, Snail and E-cadherin during EMT is a potential target for antimetastatic therapeutics.

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International audience; Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by abnormal polyglutamine (polyQ) expansion in the protein huntingtin. We have previously demonstrated the importance of the insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-1)/Akt pathway in HD. Indeed, upon IGF-1 activation, Akt phosphorylates polyQ-huntingtin at serine 421 and abrogates its toxicity. In addition, we have demonstrated that Akt is altered in the brain of HD patients. Here, we investigate the role of the serum- and glucocorticoid-induced kinase (SGK) in HD. We show that SGK phosphorylates huntingtin at serine 421 and that phosphorylation can protect striatal neurons against polyQ-huntingtin-induced toxicity. We find that SGK levels are increased in the brain of HD patients. Using a cellular model of HD, we demonstrate that the SGK dysregulation induced by polyQ-huntingtin occurs via the p38/MAPK pathway. Collectively, our results strongly suggest the involvement of SGK in HD and further imply that IGF-1 downstream signalling is a key transduction pathway that regulates the toxicity of huntingtin.

International audience; The B-raf/c-Rmil proto-oncogene belongs to the raf/mil family of serine/threonine protein kinases. It encodes multiple protein isoforms resulting from alternative splicing of two exons located upstream of the kinase domain. Recent studies suggested that B-Raf could be the intermediate molecule between Ras and Mek-1 (MAP Kinase Kinase) in signalling pathways specific of neural cells. However, there has been no evidence for a direct interaction between B-Raf and Mek-1. We report here that different B-Raf isoforms can be co-immunoprecipitated with anti-Mek-1 antisera in COS-1 cells and that the kinase activity of B-Raf is not required for its interaction with Mek-1. We also show that all B-Raf isoforms tested phosphorylate Mek-1 in a time-dependent manner, whereas kinase defective mutants fail to do so. Finally, we demonstrate that the constitutively activated S218D, S222D and S218D/S222D mutants of Mek-1 interact similarly with B-Raf. However, only the S218D and S222D mutants, and not the S218D/S222D double mutant, can be phosphorylated by B-Raf isoforms. Therefore, serine residues 218 and 222, previously shown to regulate Mek-1 activity, appear to be the major phosphorylation sites by B-Raf in vitro.

International audience; The c-Rmil/B-raf proto-oncogene belongs to the mil/raf family encoding serine/threonine protein kinases shown to be involved in signal transduction from the membrane to the nucleus. We previously showed that the avian c-Rmil gene encodes two proteins of 94 and 95 kDa resulting from the alternative splicing of a 120 bp exon encoding 40 aminoacids (exon 10). We isolated from a mouse brain library B-raf cDNAs containing this exon 10 and a previously unidentified 36 bp insert which constitutes an additional alternatively spliced exon designated exon 8b. These two exons are located between the CR2 region and the catalytic domain of the protein. By using specific sera generated against different regions of the B-Raf protein, we identified 10 B-Raf isoforms and we defined their structure and their expression pattern in adult mouse tissues. The B-Raf proteins are mainly expressed in neural tissues and, interestingly, isoforms containing aminoacids encoded by exon 10 are specifically expressed in these tissues. We also show that several B-Raf isoforms interact with the Mek-1 protein (MAP kinase kinase) and phosphorylate this protein on serine residues 218 and 222.

International audience; In PC12 cells, cAMP stimulates the MAP kinase pathway by an unknown mechanism. Firstly, we examined the role of calcium ion mobilization and of protein kinase C in cAMP-stimulated MAP kinase activation. We show that cAMP stimulates p44mapk independently of these events. Secondly, we studied the role of B-Raf in this process. We observed that NGF, PMA and cAMP induce the phosphorylation of B-Raf as well as an upward shift in its electrophoretic mobility. We show that B-Raf is activated following NGF and PMA treatment of PC12 cells, and that it can phosphorylate and activate MEK-1. However, cAMP inhibits B-Raf autokinase activity as well as its ability to phosphorylate and activate MEK-1. This inhibition is likely to be due to a direct effect since we found that PKA phosphorylates B-Raf in vitro. Further, we show that B-Raf binds to p21ras, but more important, this binding to p21ras is virtually abolished with B-Raf from PC12 cells treated with CPT-cAMP. Hence, these data indicate that the PKA-mediated phosphorylation of B-Raf hampers its interaction with p21ras, which is responsible for the PKA-mediated decrease in B-Raf activity. Finally, our work suggests that in PC12 cells, cAMP stimulates MAP kinase through the activation of an unidentified MEK kinase and/or the inhibition of a MEK phosphatase.

International audience; The c-Rmil/B-raf proto-oncogene is a member of the mil/raf family encoding serine/threonine protein kinases shown to be involved in signal transduction from the membrane to the nucleus. We isolated from a mouse brain library B-raf cDNAs containing a previously unidentified 36-base pair alternatively spliced exon located between exons 8 and 9 and, therefore, designated exon 8b. Human and mouse B-raf mRNAs also contain the 120-base pair alternatively spliced exon 10 previously described in the avian c-Rmil gene. Independent splicing of these two exons, located between the conserved region 2 (CR2) and the catalytic domain (CR3) gives rise to mRNAs potentially encoding four distinct proteins. By using specific sera generated against different portions of B-Raf, we identified at least 10 protein isoforms in adult mouse tissues. Some isoforms, in the range of 69-72 kDa, are not recognized by antisera directed against peptides encoded by exons 1 and 2, indicating the existence of B-Raf proteins with two different NH2 extremities. The other isoforms, in the range of 79-99 kDa, contain the amino acids encoded by exons 1 and 2, by either or both of the alternatively spliced exons, and, possibly, by another of the unidentified exon. Analysis of B-raf mRNA expression by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and immunocharacterization of B-Raf proteins in different tissues of the adult mouse showed a tissue-specific pattern of B-Raf isoforms expression. Interestingly, isoforms containing amino acids encoded by exon 10 are specifically expressed in neural tissues. Taken together, these results suggest that distinct B-Raf proteins could be involved, in a tissue-specific manner, in signal transduction pathways.

International audience; PR2257 is a new replication-defective avian sarcoma virus which harbours in addition to the spliced version of the c-src gene also about 950 bp of no-coding cellular sequences located downstream from the c-src stop codon (Geryk et al., 1989). Comparison of the 950 bp region transduced by PR2257 with the chicken c-src cDNA (Dorai et al., 1991) and genomic sequences of the c-src 3' non-coding region from chicken and quail has shown that there are no additional introns. The c-src 3' non-coding region represents the largest c-src exon (No. 12) comprising about 2 kb. Absence of conserved open reading frames within this region in chicken and quail genomic DNAs excludes the possibility for coding a protein by these sequences. Also, the possibility was excluded that numerous endogenous virus-derived sequences identified in molecularly cloned PR2257 provirus played a role in the c-src transduction. After serial passaging of PR2257 virus in vivo a variant PR2257/16 was isolated. In PR2257/16, the size of the env gene was increased due to homologous recombination with a helper virus. In addition to mutations in the viral leader and the v-src coding region, a large deletion in transduced c-src 3' non-coding sequences was found in the PR2257/16 genome. The significance of genome modifications for selective advantage of this viral variant in vivo is discussed.

International audience; The B-raf gene is the human homolog of the avian c-Rmil proto-oncogene encoding a 94-kDa serine/threonine kinase detected in avian cells. We have previously shown that this protein contains amino-terminal sequences not found in other proteins of the mil/raf gene family. These sequences are encoded by three exons in the avian genome. We report that these three exons are conserved in the human B-raf gene and that they encode an amino acid sequence similar to that of the avian c-Rmil gene, indicating that in both avian and mammalian species the product of the B-raf/c-Rmil gene is a 94-kDa protein. We also identified two human B-raf loci: B-raf-1, located on chromosome 7q34, which encodes the functional B-raf/Rmil gene product, and B-raf-2, an inactive processed pseudogene located on chromosome Xq13.

International audience; RSV mutant virus PA101T was obtained while assaying the tumorigenicity of parental PA101 virus in chickens. PA101 is a transformation defective mutant of RSV which has a low src kinase activity. However, PA101 retained a temperature-sensitive ability to induce sustained proliferation of neuroretina cells. PA101T appeared as a wild-type phenotype revertant of PA101. Molecular cloning and sequencing of PA101T showed that this reversion is due to additional mutations in PA101 src gene. These mutations are a deletion eliminating three amino acids in the N-terminal region of SH3 domain and mutation of Ala 426 to Val. Analysis of the properties of chimeric src genes associating either half of PA101T with the complementary regions of PA101 or wild-type virus showed that the N-terminal moiety of PA101T src, which contains the deletion, confers wild-type transforming properties, whereas its C-terminal moiety, which contains single amino acid mutation, confers a partially temperature-sensitive phenotype. These results are consistent with other reports showing that mutations or deletions in this region of SH3 activate the transforming potential of c-src. They support the hypothesis that the N-terminal region of SH3 interacts with a cellular negative regulator of src activity.

International audience; c-Rmil is the cellular allele of the v-Rmil oncogene transduced during in vitro passaging of Rous-associated virus type 1 in chicken embryonic neuroretina (NR) cells. The c-Rmil proto-oncogene is the avian homolog of the mammalian B-raf gene and belongs to the mil/raf oncogene family of serine/threonine protein kinases. The c-Rmil/B-raf gene is preferentially expressed in avian and mammalian neural tissues. Two c-Rmil cDNA species, resulting from an alternative splicing mechanism, were isolated from quail embryonic NR cDNA libraries. They encode two proteins of 767 and 807 amino acids that differ by the presence of an alternative exon, located upstream of the kinase domain. Expression of these cDNAs in COS-1 cells leads to the synthesis of two proteins with apparent molecular weights of 93.5 and 95 kDa, recognized by an Rmil-specific antiserum. Both proteins are phosphorylated in an immune complex kinase assay. A protein of 94 kDa is also immunoprecipitated in avian NR cells and is identical to the 93.5-kDa protein expressed in COS-1 cells, as shown by Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease mapping. The c-Rmil proteins contain the three conserved regions previously identified in mil/raf protein kinases. In addition, they contain amino-terminal sequences that are not present in the other mil/raf proteins identified to date. These additional sequences may define a novel functional domain for c-Rmil/B-raf and could play a role in signal transduction in neural cells.

International audience; The ovine beta-casein gene (CNS2) has been mapped to a specific chromosome band using nonradioactive in situ hybridization and simultaneous fluorescent R-banding. The probe pTZ-E4 was a fragment of the ovine beta-casein gene inserted in the plasmid pTZ18R and labeled with biotin-11-dUTP. It hybridized to band q32 of ovine chromosome 4. The discrepancy between this result and the previous localization of this gene on cattle chromosome 6 may be explained by the very great similarity of the banding patterns of ovine and bovine chromosomes 4 and 6.

International audience; We previously described the isolation of the IC10 retrovirus which transduced the v-Rmil oncogene, a new member of the mil/raf gene family. This virus was generated during serial passaging of Rous-associated virus type 1 (RAV-1) in chicken embryo neuroretina (NR) cells and was selected for its ability to induce proliferation of these nondividing cells. IC10 was isolated after six passages of culture supernatants but was not detected in proliferating NR cells during early virus passages. In this study, we molecularly cloned and sequenced another v-Rmil-containing provirus, designated IC11, from NR cells infected at the third virus passage of the same experiment. Both IC11 and IC10 transduced only the serine/threonine kinase domain of c-Rmil. Comparison of v-Rmil and c-Rmil sequences indicated that amino-terminal truncation is sufficient to activate the mitogenic properties of c-Rmil. IC11 and IC10 have identical 3' ends but differ by their 5' RAV-1-Rmil junctions. The 3' ends of both viruses were generated by recombination between Rmil and env genes, involving partial sequence identity. The 5' RAV-1-Rmil junction of IC11 was formed by a splicing process between the RAV-1 leader and a 37-bp c-Rmil exon located upstream of the kinase domain. NR cells infected with this virus synthesize a unique Rmil protein. IC10 contains most of the gag gene recombined with v-Rmil and encodes a gag-Rmil hybrid protein. Serial passaging of IC11 in NR cells led to the formation of a gag-Rmil-containing retrovirus. These results indicate that IC11 represents an early step in transduction and that this virus further recombined with RAV-1 to generate IC10. They confirm our previously proposed model for the multistep generation of v-mil-transducing retroviruses. Therefore, activation and transduction of c-mil and c-Rmil, in NR cells infected with RAV-1, result from a common mechanism.

International audience; Expression of the v-src gene of Rous sarcoma virus in avian embryo neuroretina cells results in transformation and sustained proliferation of these normally resting cells. Transformed neuroretina cells are also tumorigenic upon inoculation into immunodeficient hosts. We have previously described conditional mutants of Rous sarcoma virus encoding p60v-src proteins which induce proliferation of neuroretina cells in the absence of transformation and tumorigenicity. These results suggest that p60v-src is composed of functionally distinct domains which may interact with multiple cellular targets. In this study, we describe a spontaneous variant of Rous sarcoma virus, subgroup E, which carries a deletion of 278 base pairs in the 5' portion of the v-src gene but which has retained the ability to induce proliferation of quail neuroretina cells. The deleted v-src gene encodes a 45,000-molecular-weight phosphoprotein which contains both phosphoserine and phosphotyrosine, is myristylated, and possesses tyrosine kinase activity indistinguishable from that of wild-type p60v-src. Molecular cloning and sequence analysis of the mutant v-src gene have shown that this deletion extends from amino acid 33 to 126 of the wild-type p60v-src. Therefore, this portion of the v-src protein is dispensable for the mitogenic activity of Rous sarcoma virus in neuroretina cells.

International audience; The peripheral neurotoxicity of lindane was studied in vitro on mouse phrenic-diaphragm preparation. The experiments were performed on normal and denervated preparations. Twitches evoked by direct or indirect electrical stimulations and contractions evoked by external application of cholinergic agonists were compared in the presence or absence of lindane in the bath medium. Histochemical localizations of calcium were made on fibers after chemical stimulations. The results indicated that, at the normal endplate or at extrajunctionnal sites after denervation, there was a change in the intracellular Ca2+ distribution in response to external application of concentrated cholinergic agonists. This modification caused a transient contracture and could be visualized either by 45Ca autoradiography or by Alizarin Red S intracellular precipitations. Lindane inhibited the ACh-dependent contracture (I50 less than 10(-5) M) and suppressed the histochemical localizations of calcium. These lindane effects were observed on both normal and denervated muscles. It was concluded that lindane inhibited the Ca2+ influx presented by the desensitized ACh-sensitive areas of the muscle.

International audience; When injected into chickens, a transformation-defective mutant of the Prague C strain of Rous sarcoma virus induced tumors at low incidence and after a long latency. One such tumor released a replication-defective virus designated PR2257. We molecularly cloned and sequenced the proviral DNA from quail fibroblasts transformed by PR2257. Comparison of PR2257 sequence with that of Prague C, cellular src, and 3' adjacent cellular DNA showed that the spliced version of the c-src gene and about 950 base pairs (bp) of 3'-flanking cellular DNA were transduced into PR2257. This transduction eliminated nearly all replicative genes, since the gag gene splice donor site was linked to the splice acceptor site of the src gene and, on the 3' side, recombination occurred in the end of env gene. Insertion of two extra cytosines 23 bp before and 19 bp after the c-src stop codon resulted in an extension of the coding portion up to 587 amino acids, divergence of sequences after Pro-525 and replacement of Tyr-527 by a valine residue. In addition, it appears that the 5' and 3' untranslated regions of PR2257 result from multiple recombinations between exogenous and endogenous virus genomes. Limited digestion of p66src encoded by PR2257 with Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease yielded a V2 peptide (C-terminal moiety) with an apparent molecular mass of 31 kilodaltons, consistent with the 5.7-kilodalton increase expected from the DNA sequence. The structure of PR2257 suggests that the first step in the capture of c-src gene by avian lymphomatosis viruses is the trans splicing of the viral leader mRNA to exon 1 of c-src.

International audience; The B-raf/c-Rmil proto-oncogene belongs to the raf/mil family of serine/threonine protein kinases. It encodes multiple protein isoforms previously shown to be expressed predominantly in neural tissues. We report here that B-Raf proteins of 95 and 72 kDa are also expressed in various human and murine hematopoietic cell lines. Their relative level of expression is variable depending on the cell line examined. The highest level of expression of p95B-raf was found in UT-7 cells, a human pluripotent cell line established from a patient with a megakaryoblastic leukemia. These cells are able to differentiate toward erythroid or myeloid lineage phenotypes in presence of erythropoietin (EPO) or granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) respectively. We show that treatment of UT-7 cells with EPO, GM-CSF or stem cell factor (SCF) rapidly induces phosphorylation of p95B-raf as indicated by a shift of electrophoretic mobility. This increase in phosphorylation is correlated with a three-fold increase of B-Raf kinase activity. B-Raf activation also increases in a dose-dependent manner in response to EPO and GM-CSF. We also show that both p95B-raf and p72B-raf can be activated by IL-3 in murine BAF-3 pro-B cells and by anti-CD3 in human Jurkat cells, respectively. These observations provide the first evidence that the B-Raf kinase is involved in signal transduction pathways regulating proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic cells of both myeloid and lymphoid lineages.

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