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Modulation of RNA Polymerase Activities in the Intestine of Adult Rats by Dietary Sucrose¹

Unité 61 de l'INSERM, F-67 200 Strasbourg, France The ^* Wenner-Gren Institute for Experimental Biology, Norrtullsgatan 16, S-113 45 Stockholm, Sweden

The effect of sucrose feeding on endogenous intestinal RNA polymerase activities and on chromatin structure was studied in rats. Adult rats were given a 70% sucrose solution for 15 hours following a 48-hour starvation period. Comparison was made with rats starved for 63 hours and with ad libitum nourished animals. Chromatin-bound RNA polymerase I activity was significantly reduced by starvation. Sucrose feeding provoked a significant rise in the activity, but the level found in the nourished rats was not reached. The free poly[d(A-T)]-dependent RNA polymerase I activity of the sucrose-fed rats exceeded that of the starved and the nourished animals. Chromatin-bound RNA polymerase II activity was enhanced most markedly by sucrose feeding. The balance between the chromatin-bound and free enzymes was shifted towards the chromatin-bound state when compared to the starved and nourished rats. Starvation caused a reduction in the size of oligonucleosomes but sucrose feeding restored almost entirely the original pattern obtained in the nourished animals. These results reflect modifications in the structure of chromatin after sucrose feeding. The present report demonstrates that the adaptive processes triggered in the intestine by dietary sucrose are associated with changes in gene expression.

KEY WORDS: • intestine • RNA polymerase • chromatin • dietary sucrose • starvation

¹ This work was supported in part by the Swedish Medical Research Council and by INSERM (France).

² Recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship of the Swedish Medical Research Council (Project No. K82-13F-6371-01) within the scientific exchange program between Sweden and France.

Manuscript received 13 April 1983.