Activating transcription factor 1 and cyclic AMP response element modulator can modulate the activity of the immunoglobulin kappa 3' enhancer.

Previously we determined that the immunoglobulin kappa 3' enhancer (kappa E3') contains at least two functional DNA sequences (PU.1/NF-EM5 and E2A) within its 132-base pair active core. We have determined that the activities of these two sequences are insufficient to account for the entire activity of the 132-base pair core. Using site-directed linker scan mutagenesis across the core fragment we identified several additional functional sequences. We used one of these functional sequences to screen a lambda gt11 cDNA expression library resulting in the isolation of cDNA clones encoding the transcription factors ATF-1 (activating transcription factor) and CREM (cyclic AMP response element modulator). Because ATF-1 and CREM are known to bind to cAMP response elements (CRE), this functional sequence was named the kappa E3'-CRE. We show that dibutyryl cAMP can increase kappa E3' enhancer activity, and in transient expression assays ATF-1 caused a 4-5-fold increase in the activity of the core enhancer while CREM-alpha expression resulted in repression of enhancer activity. RNA analyses showed increased levels of ATF-1 mRNA during B cell development and some changes in CREM transcript processing. By joining various fragments of the kappa E3' enhancer to the kappa E3'-CRE, we observed that the kappa E3'-CRE can synergistically increase transcription in association with the PU.1/NF-EM5 binding sites, suggesting a functional interaction between the proteins that bind to these DNA sequences. Consistent with this possibility, we found that ATF-1 and CREM can physically interact with PU.1. The isolation of activator and repressor proteins that bind to the kappa E3'-CRE may relate to previous conflicting results concerning the role of the cAMP signal transduction pathway in kappa gene transcription.