Abstract

Membrane depolarization is a critical component of neural signaling; in recent years there also has been a great deal of evidence that membrane depolarization can regulate neural gene expression. Therefore, excitatory neurotransmission may be an important mechanism of neural plasticity. We have investigated the intracellular pathways and DNA regulatory elements through which membrane depolarization activates expression of the neural gene encoding human proenkephalin. In PC12 and C6-glioma cells, depolarization-induced expression of a transfected proenkephalin fusion gene was proportional to extracellular calcium concentration and was inhibited by verapamil. Activation of the gene by KCl-induced depolarization or the calcium ionophore A23187 was dependent upon and synergistic with cAMP in PC12 and C6-glioma cells, but neither depolarization nor treatment with A23187 affected cAMP levels. Trifluoperazine and W7 inhibited depolarization-induced gene expression but did not affect expression induced by the adenylyl cyclase activator forskolin. At the level of the DNA, depolarization-induced activation is conferred on the proenkephalin gene by a previously characterized cAMP-inducible enhancer. Multiple copies of a single component element of that enhancer, containing the CGTCA sequence motif characteristic of cAMP regulatory elements, can reconstitute the entire repertoire of responses to both cAMP and depolarization. These data suggest a model in which membrane depolarization activates gene expression through a calcium-dependent pathway, potentially involving calmodulin, and in which the transcriptional responses to both cAMP and calcium are transduced by the same DNA element.