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The flavin-containing monooxygenases (FMOs) are a family of xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes that are expressed in a species- and tissue-specific manner. FMO2 expression has been observed in pulmonary tissue from several species, but not human. Two human FMO2 point mutations have been reported: a cytosine to thymidine transition at position 1414 resulting in a premature stop codon and a thymidine insertion at position 1589 resulting in a frameshift. To define the frequency of these sequence variations and explore their significance, unrelated African-American, Caucasian, and Korean individuals were genotyped. In the African-American population tested (n = 180), the 1414C allele occurred at a 13% frequency; however, all of the tested Caucasians (n = 52) and Koreans (n = 100) were homozygous for the 1414T allele. The T1589 allele occurred at frequencies of 6.9 and 13.0% in African-Americans (n = 175) and Caucasians (n = 23), respectively, and appears to segregate with the 1414T allele. Thus, it would have no further impact on FMO2 activity. Western blot analysis of pulmonary microsomes failed to detect immunoreactive protein in 1414T homozygotes. A heterozygotic individual did exhibit a single band of the expected size, but no detectable FMO activity in the corresponding lung microsomes. Sequence analysis, however, was consistent with the 1414C allele encoding an active FMO2 enzyme. FMO2 mRNA expression was observed in most individuals, but failed to correlate with genotype or protein expression. In summary, functional FMO2 is expressed in only a small percentage of the overall population. However, in certain ethnic groups, active pulmonary FMO2 enzyme will be present in a significant number of individuals.

The human flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO) gene family comprises at least five distinct members (FMO1 to FMO5) that code for enzymes responsible for the oxidation of a wide variety of soft nucleophilic substrates, including drugs and environmental pollutants. Three of these genes (FMO1, FMO3, and FMO4) have previously been localized to human chromosome 1q, raising the possibility that the entire gene family is clustered in this chromosomal region. Analysis by polymerase chain reaction of DNA isolated from a panel of human-rodent somatic cell hybrids demonstrates that the two remaining identified members of the FMO gene family, FMO2 and FMO5, also are located on chromosome 1q.

Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV), a member of the type I alphabaculoviruses, is able to transduce and deliver a functional gene to a range of non-host cells, including many mammalian lines and primary cells, a property mediated by the envelope fusion protein GP64. AcMNPV is non-cytopathic and inherently replication deficient in non-host cells. As such, AcMNPV represents a possible new class of gene therapy vector with potential future clinical utility. Whilst not a problem for in vitro gene delivery, the broad tropism displayed for non-host cells is less desirable in a gene therapy vector. The fusion protein F of type II alphabaculoviruses can substitute functionally for GP64, and such pseudotyped viruses display a severely impaired capacity for non-host-cell transduction. Thus, surface decoration of such an F-pseudotyped AcMNPV with cell-binding ligands may restore transduction competence and generate vectors with desirable cell-targeting characteristics. By seamlessly swapping the native gp64 coding sequence with each of five sequences encoding different F proteins, a set of F-pseudotyped AcMNPV was generated. This report details their relative abilities both to functionally replace GP64 in viral growth and to transduce human Saos-2 and HeLa cells. All five supported viable infections in insect cell cultures and one, the Mamestra configurata NPV (MacoNPV) F pseudotype, could be amplified to titres close to those of native AcMNPV. In contrast, none was able to transduce the Saos-2 and HeLa cell lines. The robust support provided by MacoNPV F in virus production makes the corresponding pseudotype a viable scaffold to display surface ligands to direct selective mammalian cell targeting.

We have used the polymerase chain reaction to map the gene encoding human flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO) form II (N. Lomri, Q. Gu, and J. R. Cashman, 1992, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89: 1685-1689) to chromosome 1. We propose the designation FMO3 for this gene as it is the third FMO gene to be mapped. The two other human FMO genes identified to date, FMO1 and FMO2, are also located on chromosome 1 (C. Dolphin, E. A. Shephard, S. Povey, C. N. A. Palmer, D. M. Ziegler, R. Ayesh, R. L. Smith, and I. R. Phillips, 1991, J. Biol. Chem. 266: 12379-12385; C. Dolphin, E. A. Shephard, S. F. Povey, R. L. Smith, and I. R. Phillips, 1992, Biochem. J. 286: 261-267). The localization of FMO1, FMO2, and FMO3 has been refined to the long arm of chromosome 1. Analysis of human metaphase chromosomes by in situ hybridization confirmed the mapping of FMO1 and localized this gene more precisely to 1q23-q25.

The success of RNA interference (RNAi) in mammalian cells, mediated by siRNAs or shRNA-generating plasmids, is dependent, to an extent, upon transfection efficiency. This is a particular problem with primary cells, which are often difficult to transfect using cationic lipid vehicles. Effective RNAi in primary cells is thus best achieved with viral vectors, and retro-, adeno-, and lentivirus RNAi systems have been described. However, the use of such human viral vectors is inherently problematic, e.g., Class 2 status and requirement of secondary helper functions. Although insect cells are their natural host, baculoviruses also transduce a range of vertebrate cell lines and primary cells with high efficiency. The inability of baculoviral vectors to replicate in mammalian cells, their Class 1 status, and the simplicity of their construction make baculovirus an attractive alternative gene delivery vector. We have developed a baculoviral-based RNAi system designed to express shRNAs and GFP from U6 and CMV promoters, respectively. Transduction of Saos2, HepG2, Huh7, and primary human hepatic stellate cells with a baculoviral construct expressing shRNAs targeting lamin A/C resulted in effective knockdown of the corresponding mRNA and protein. Development of this baculoviral-based system provides an additional shRNA delivery option for RNAi-based investigations in mammalian cells.

Mammalian flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO) exists as six gene families and metabolizes a plethora of drugs and xenobiotics. The major FMO in adult human liver, FMO3, is responsible for trimethylamine (TMA) N-oxygenation. A number of FMO3 mutant alleles have been described and associated with a disease termed trimethylaminuria (TMAU). The TMAU patient excretes large amounts of TMA in urine and sweat. A more recent ethnically related polymorphism in expression of the major FMO in lung, FMO2, has been described. All Caucasians and Asians genotyped to date are homozygous for a CAG --> TAG amber mutation resulting in a premature stop codon and a nonfunctional protein truncated at AA 472 (wildtype FMO2 is 535 AA). This allele has been designated hFMO2*2A. Twenty-six percent of individuals of African descent and 5% of Hispanics genotyped to date carry at least one allele coding for full-length FMO2 (hFMO2*1 allele). Preliminary evidence indicates that FMO2.1 is very active toward the S-oxygenation of low MW thioureas, including the lung toxicant ethylene thiourea. Polymorphic expression of functional FMO2 in the individuals of African and Hispanic descent may markedly influence drug metabolism and/or xenobiotic toxicity in the lung.

Flavin-containing monooxygenases (FMOs) are NADPH-dependent flavoenzymes that catalyze the oxidation of heteroatom centers in numerous drugs and xenobiotics. FMO2, or “pulmonary” FMO, one of five forms of the enzyme identified in mammals, is expressed predominantly in lung and differs from other FMOs in that it can catalyze the N-oxidation of certain primary alkylamines. We describe here the isolation and characterization of cDNAs for human FMO2. Analysis of the sequence of the cDNAs and of a section of the corresponding gene revealed that the major FMO2 allele of humans encodes a polypeptide that, compared with the orthologous protein of other mammals, lacks 64 amino acid residues from its C terminus. Heterologous expression of the cDNA revealed that the truncated polypeptide was catalytically inactive. The nonsense mutation that gave rise to the truncated polypeptide, a C → T transition in codon 472, is not present in theFMO2 gene of closely related primates, including gorilla and chimpanzee, and must therefore have arisen in the human lineage after the divergence of the Homo and Pan clades. Possible mechanisms for the fixation of the mutation in the human population and the potential significance of the loss of functional FMO2 in humans are discussed.

The inherited metabolic disorder trimethylaminuria (fish-odor syndrome) is associated with defective hepatic N-oxidation of dietary-derived trimethylamine catalyzed by flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO). As FMO3 encodes the major form of FMO expressed in adult human liver, it represents the best candidate gene for the disorder. The structural organization of FMO3 was determined by sequencing the products of exon-to-exon and vectorette PCR, the latter through the use of vectorette libraries constructed directly from genomic DNA. The gene contains one noncoding and eight coding exons. Knowledge of the exon/intron organization of the human FMO3 gene enabled each of the coding exons of the gene, together with their associated flanking intron sequences, to be amplified from genomic DNA and will thus facilitate the identification of mutations in FMO3 in families affected with fish-odor syndrome.

Individuals with primary trimethylaminuria exhibit a body odour reminiscent of rotting fish, due to excessive excretion of trimethylamine (TMA; refs 1-3). The disorder, colloquially known as fish-odour syndrome, is inherited recessively as a defect in hepatic N-oxidation of dietary-derived TMA and cannot be considered benign, as sufferers may display a variety of psychosocial reactions, ranging from social isolation of clinical depression and attempted suicide. TMA oxidation is catalyzed by flavin-containing mono-oxygenase (FMO; refs 7,8), and tissue localization and functional studies have established FMO3 as the form most likely to be defective in fish-odour syndrome. Direct sequencing of the coding exons of FMO3 amplified from a patient with fish-odour syndrome identified two missense mutations. Although one of these represented a common polymorphism, the other, a C-->T transition in exon 4, was found only in an affected pedigree, in which it segregated with the disorder. The latter mutation predicts a proline-->leucine substitution at residue 153 and abolishes FMO3 catalytic activity. Our results indicate that defects in FMO3 underlie fish-odour syndrome and that the Pro 153-->Leu 153 mutation described here is a cause of this distressing condition.

cDNA clones encoding five distinct members of the FMO family of man (FMOs 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) were isolated by a combination of library screening and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction techniques. The deduced amino acid sequences of the human FMOs have 82-87% identity with their known orthologues in other mammal but only 51-57% similarity to each other. The hydropathy profiles of the proteins are very similar. From the calculated rate of evolution of FMOs (a 1% change in sequence per 6 million years) it would appear that individual members of the FMO gene family arose by duplication of a common ancestral gene some 250-300 million years ago. Each of the FMO genes was mapped by the polymerase chain reaction to the long arm of human chromosome 1. The localization of the FMO1 gene was further refined to 1q23-q25 by in situ hybridization of human metaphase chromosomes. RNase protection assays demonstrated that in man each FMO gene displays a distinct developmental and tissue-specific pattern of expression. In the adult, FMO1 is expressed in kidney but not in liver, whereas in the foetus its mRNA is abundant in both organs. FMO3 expression is essentially restricted to the liver in the adult and the mRNA is either absent, or present in low amounts, in foetal tissues. FMO4 is expressed more constitutively. Human FMO1 and FMO3 cDNAs were functionally expressed in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. FMO1 and FMO3, expressed in either system, displayed product stereoselectivity in their catalysis of the N-oxidation of the pro-chiral tertiary amines, N-ethyl-N-methylaniline (EMA) and pargyline. Both enzymes were stereoselective with respect to the production of the (-)-S-enantiomer of EMA N-oxide. But in the case of pargyline, the enzymes displayed opposite stereoselectivity, FMO1 producing solely the (+)-enantiomer and FMO3 predominantly the (-)-enantiomer of the N-oxide.

A nomenclature based on comparisons of amino acid sequences is proposed for the members of the mammalian flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO) gene family. This nomenclature is based on evidence of a single gene family composed of five genes. The percentage identities of the amino acid sequences of the five known forms of mammalian FMO are between 52 and 57% in rabbit and between 50 and 58% across species lines. The identities of all orthologs are greater than 82%. There is no evidence for multiple, highly related forms of the enzyme or for more than one mammalian FMO gene family. In the proposed system, the mammalian flavin-containing monooxygenase gene family is designated as "FMO" and the individual genes are distinguished by an Arabic numeral. The FMOs known as the "liver" and "lung" enzymes become FMO1 and FMO2, and the more recently described forms of the enzymes become FMO3, FMO4, and FMO5. Human FMO gene designations, FMO1 and FMO3, remain unchanged, but the gene designated FMO2 becomes FMO4. Following convention, the genes and cDNA designations will be italicized and the mRNA and protein designations will be nonitalicized. The purpose of the proposed nomenclature is to provide for the unambiguous identification of orthologous forms of mammalian FMOs, regardless of the species or tissue in question. The proposed classification considers only members of the mammalian flavin-containing monooxygenase gene family and has no bearing on the generally accepted definition of a multisubstrate flavin-containing monooxygenase.

Recombineering is employed to modify large DNA clones such as fosmids, BACs and PACs. Subtle and seamless modifications can be achieved using counter-selection strategies in which a donor cassette carrying both positive and negative markers inserted in the target clone is replaced by the desired sequence change. We are applying counter-selection recombineering to modify bacmid bMON14272, a recombinant baculoviral genome, as we wish to engineer the virus into a therapeutically useful gene delivery vector with cell targeting characteristics. Initial attempts to replace gp64 with Fusion (F) genes from other baculoviruses resulted in many rearranged clones in which the counter-selection cassette had been deleted. Bacmid bMON14272 contains nine highly homologous regions (hrs) and deletions were mapped to recombination between hr pairs. Recombineering modifications were attempted to decrease intramolecular recombination and/or increase recombineering efficiency. Of these only the use of longer homology arms on the donor molecule proved effective permitting seamless modification. bMON14272, because of the presence of the hr sequences, can be considered equivalent to a highly repetitive BAC and, as such, the optimized method detailed here should prove useful to others applying counter-selection recombineering to modify BACs or PACs containing similar regions of significant repeating homologies.

We have previously reported the cloning of cDNAs for a flavin-containing mono-oxygenase (FMO) of man, designated FMO1 [Dolphin, Shephard, Povey, Palmer, Ziegler, Ayesh, Smith & Phillips (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 12379-12385], that is the orthologue of pig and rabbit hepatic FMOs. We now describe the isolation and characterization of cDNA clones for a second human FMO, which we have designated FMO2. The polypeptide encoded by the cDNAs is 558 amino acid residues long, has a calculated M(r) of 63337, and contains putative FAD- and NADP-binding sites that align exactly with those described in other mammalian FMOs. Human FMO2 has 51-53% primary sequence identity with human FMO1, rabbit pulmonary FMO and rabbit liver FMO form 2, and thus represents a fourth, distinct, member of the mammalian FMO family. The corresponding mRNA is present in low abundance in adult human liver. Southern blot hybridization with single-exon probes demonstrated that human FMO2 and FMO1 are the products of single genes. The gene encoding FMO2 (designated FMO2) was mapped, by the polymerase chain reaction, to human chromosome 1, the same chromosome on which FMO1 is located.