Isolation of a mammalian sequence capable of conferring cell cycle regulation to a heterologous gene.

A hybrid gene containing the 5' sequence of a hamster histone H3 gene and the coding sequence of the bacterial neomycin-resistance gene (neo) was constructed. Upon transfection into the hamster fibroblast cell line K12, the hybrid gene exhibited cell cycle-dependent regulation, as evidenced by the maximal accumulation of the neo transcripts during synthesis of DNA in the cell cycle. In addition, cells arrested in the prereplicative phase, as a consequence of the K12 temperature-sensitive mutation, produced significantly less neo messenger RNA.