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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 279, Issue 30, 31296-31303, July 23, 2004
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and MPN Domain of Jab1/CSN5*



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From the
Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1,Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032, the
Department of Bioengineering, Faculty of Engineering, Soka University, 1-236 Tangi-Cho, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0003, and ¶Cancer Chemotherapy Center, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, 1-37-1, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 170-8455, Japan
Received for publication, February 9, 2004 , and in revised form, April 30, 2004.
| ABSTRACT |
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, an essential enzyme for cell proliferation, is targeted to a proteasome-dependent degradation pathway when human tumor cells are glucose-starved. Here we show that the topo II
destabilization depends on the newly identified domain, GRDD (glucose-regulated destruction domain), which was mapped to the N-terminal 70170 amino acid sequence. Indeed, the deletion of GRDD conferred a stable feature on topo II
, whereas the fusion of GRDD rendered green fluorescent protein unstable under glucose starvation conditions. Nuclear localization was a prerequisite for GRDD function, because the inhibition of nuclear translocation resulted in the suppression of GRDD-mediated topo II
degradation. Further, GRDD was identified as an interactive domain for Jab1/CSN5, which promoted the degradation of topo II
in a manner dependent on the MPN (Mpr1p/Prd1p N terminus) domain. Depleting Jab1/CSN5 by antisense oligonucleotide and treating cells with the CSN-associated kinase inhibitor, curcumin, inhibited topo II
degradation induced by glucose starvation. These findings demonstrate that GRDD can act as a stress-activated degron for regulating topo II
stability, possibly through interaction with the MPN domain of Jab1/CSN5. | INTRODUCTION |
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and
, which share a high degree of structural homology with a
70% sequence identity (2, 3). Three discrete functional domains are embedded in the topo II enzymes (1, 4). The N-terminal and the central domains are responsible for ATPase and catalytic activities, respectively, and the C-terminal domain, the least conserved region, contains the nuclear localization signals (NLSs). Although the structural and the biochemical features are closely related, the topo II isoforms show a great difference in their expression characteristics (4). The expression of topo II
is regulated by the state of cellular proliferation, high in proliferation and low in quiescence with a higher cell density or a lower serum concentration. The levels of topo II
also change within a single cell cycle, peaking in the G2/M phase and declining to a minimal level after M phase completion. However, the levels of topo II
are relatively constant throughout the cell cycle and in quiescent and proliferating states (5).
The topo II isoforms have been shown to be the molecular target for such clinically important antitumor drugs such as etoposide and doxorubicin (6, 7). The topo II-directed drugs convert this enzyme into a cellular poison by stabilizing the covalent DNA-enzyme intermediates, the so-called cleavable complex. Interestingly, the increase in topo II-cleavable complexes also has been observed in the presence of a number of physiological stressors such as acidic pH, oxidation, and thiol (8, 9). DNA damage resulting from the cleavable complexes is thought to lead to eventual cell death. Thus, any processes leading to a decrease in the number of cleavable complexes may have a positive impact on cell survival. In the case of topo II-directed drugs, cellular resistance can be achieved by both qualitative and quantitative changes in topo II much more frequently with the
-isoform. Indeed, the resistance often correlates with a decrease in topo II
expression levels or with mutations in the protein that reduce enzymatic activity (10). C-terminal truncations of topo II
, which result in the loss of functional NLS and thus cytoplasmic localization of the enzyme, also have been found to correlate with resistance to topo II-directed drugs (11, 12).
High levels of topo II
expression have been shown in a wide variety of tumors, partly due to the increased growth fraction (13). The high topo II
expression may provide a rationale for the use of topo II-directed drugs in clinical settings. However, most of the common solid tumors exhibit resistance to chemotherapy. Malignant cells within solid tumors are often surrounded by conditions such as glucose deprivation, hypoxia, low pH, and other forms of nutrient deprivation (8, 9, 14). These physiological conditions in culture can down-regulate the expression of topo II
with growth arrest or delay at the G1 phase of the cell cycle (15). What we found to be consistent with the decreased topo II
levels was tumor cells becoming resistant to topo II-directed drugs when stressed by glucose starvation and related culture conditions (16, 17). These observations suggest that the stress-mediated down-regulation of topo II
may be an obstacle to successful topo II-directed chemotherapy.
Recently, we have shown that inhibition of proteasome attenuates stress-induced resistance by inhibiting topo II
depletion (18). Topo II
restoration is seen only at the protein levels, indicating that topo II
protein depletion occurs through a proteasome-mediated degradation mechanism. In general, proteasome-mediated proteolysis is targeted by ubiquitylation of the substrate proteins (19). Consistently, topo II
can be conjugated with polyubiquitin in a cell-free system with extracts of cancer cells (20). Thus, the ubiquitin-proteasome system appears responsible for topo II
degradation under conditions of glucose starvation, but the regulatory mechanisms leading to topo II
degradation are largely unknown.
In this study, we have attempted to identify the domain of topo II
responsible for degradation under glucose starvation. We report herein a novel degradation signal designated glucose-regulated destruction domain (GRDD), which presents within the N-terminal ATPase domain. Our current results show that GRDD functions in the nucleus and can lead to proteasome-mediated degradation of heterologous proteins under stress conditions. We also demonstrate that Jab1/CSN5 binds to and promotes degradation of topo II
in a GRDD-dependent manner. Consistent with this finding was that specific inhibition of Jab1/CSN5 leads to the stabilization of endogenous topo II
under stress conditions.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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-t-butyl-L-glutamyl-L-alanyl-L-leucinal) and MG132 were purchased from the Peptide Institute Inc. (Osaka, Japan). Lactacystin and curcumin were from Kyowa Medex (Tokyo, Japan) and Sigma, respectively. These compounds were dissolved in Me2SO and added to culture medium so that the final concentration of Me2SO was <0.5%. All of the experiments were repeated at least three times using exponentially growing cells.
Expression PlasmidsFor expression plasmid construction of full-length topo II
and its deletion mutants from N or C terminus, the pBluescript SK+ plasmid containing full-length human topo II
cDNA (a generous gift from Dr James C. Wang, Harvard University) (21) was used as a template for PCR amplification with PfuTurbo DNA polymerase (Stratagene, LA Jolla, CA). To facilitate subcloning, a ClaI and a SalI restriction sites were introduced at the 5'- and 3'-ends, respectively. The PCR products first were cloned into the pPCR-Script Amp vector (Stratagene) and subsequently subcloned into the ClaI/SalI site of the pFLAG-CMV2 expression vector (Sigma). For construction of a
7141287 topo II
internal deletion mutant, the sequence corresponding to amino acids 7141532 was removed from pFLAG-WT topo II
by BglII/SalI digestion and replaced with a PCR fragment corresponding to amino acids 12881532. Further internal deletions within amino acids 1713 were performed by replacing the sequence between the ClaI and BglII sites of pFLAG-
7141287 topo II
with each corresponding PCR fragment. Similarly, the expression plasmids of GFP-NLS2 fusion proteins were constructed by either replacing with or by inserting a GFP gene derived from the pCMV/Myc/nuc/GFP vector (Invitrogen). pFLAG-ND70170 topo II
was constructed using two PCR fragments (corresponding to amino acids 169 and 1711532) that were introduced into the NotI-ClaI and ClaI-SalI sites at the 5'- and 3'-ends, respectively. Site-directed mutagenesis including single amino acid substitution, double amino acid substitution, and deletion up to 10 amino acids was carried out using a QuikChange mutagenesis kit (Stratagene).
The pcHA expression vector derived from pcDNA3 (Invitrogen) was described previously (22). Full-length human Jab1/CSN5 cDNA was generated by PCR from a cDNA library of HT29 cells. The PCR fragment was cloned into the pcHA expression vector at the BamHI/NotI site. A PCR fragment corresponding to amino acids 1190 of Jab1/CSN5 also was cloned into the pcHA vector at the BamHI/NotI site. The plasmid construction of
MPN Jab1/CSN5 was carried out using two PCR fragments (corresponding to amino acids 154 and 191344) that were introduced to BamHI-NotI and NotI-XbaI sites at the 5'- and 3'-ends, respectively. The pcDNA3-GFP vector was described previously (23). The proper construction of all of the plasmids was confirmed by DNA sequencing. All of the plasmids for transfection were prepared using an EndoFree Plasmid Maxi Kit (Qiagen, Tokyo, Japan).
TransfectionTransfections were performed using FuGENE 6 transfection reagent (Roche Applied Science) according to the manufacturer's protocol with minor modifications. HT1080 cells were seeded at 5 x 105 cells/well in a six-well plate 16 h before transfection. After changing to 2 ml of fresh culture medium, 200 µl of transfection mixture containing 2 µg of plasmid DNA and 12 µl of FuGENE 6 reagent in 188 µl of Opti-MEM (Invitrogen) was added to each well and the cells were incubated for 8 h. The cells were washed with phosphate-buffered saline and further incubated for 6 h in fresh medium. After transfection, the cells were cultivated in normal or glucose-free culture medium for the indicated periods of time.
Preparation of Nuclear and Cytoplasmic ExtractsNuclear and cytoplasmic extracts of HT1080 cells were prepared using NE-PERTM nuclear and cytoplasmic extraction reagents (Pierce) according to the manufacturer's protocol.
Western Blot AnalysisCells were washed with cold phosphate-buffered saline and lysed in 1x SDS sample buffer (10% glycerol, 5% 2-mercaptoethanol, 2% SDS, 62.5 mM Tris-HCl, pH 6.8) as described previously (17). Protein content of the samples was determined using a Bio-Rad protein assay reagent. Equal amounts of samples were resolved by SDS-PAGE and electroblotted onto a nitrocellulose membrane (Schleicher & Schuell). Membranes were probed with mouse monoclonal anti-human topo II
(clone KF4, Sigma Genosys), anti-FLAG M2 (Sigma), anti-Jab1/CSN5 (GeneTex, Inc), polyclonal anti-GFP (Clontech, Palo Alto, CA), anti-actin (c-2) horseradish peroxidase (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA), anti-Signalosome subunit CSN1, CSN8 (AFFINITI Research Products Ltd), and anti-GRP78 horseradish peroxidase antibodies (BD Transduction Laboratories). The specific signals were detected using an enhanced chemiluminescence detection system (Amersham Biosciences).
Immunofluorescence MicroscopyCells grown on a 35-mm glass-bottom culture dish with a polylysine-coated glass (MatTek, Ashland, MA) were fixed in 4% formaldehyde for 10 min and permeabilized with methanol for 2 min. The fixed cells were processed for immunostaining with anti-FLAG M2 antibody (1:100 dilution) followed by a fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated anti-mouse secondary antibody (1:1000 dilution). The nuclei were counterstained using 0.1 µg/ml 4,6-diamino-2-phenylindole. The cells were observed using a fluorescence microscope (Olympus IX-70) equipped with a CCD camera.
Yeast Two-hybrid SystemWe used a yeast two-hybrid system commercially available from Clontech. The coding region of the N-terminal (aa 1200 and 1584) of topo II
protein was fused in-frame with the GAL4 DNA-binding domain of the pGBKT7 vector (Clontech). The resulting bait plasmids were used to screen a human fetal brain cDNA library (Clontech) according to the manufacturer's protocol. From 1.5 x 106 transfectants, 11 positive clones were isolated. DNA sequence analysis identified two Jab1 clones from the 11 positive clones obtained.
In Vitro Protein-binding AssayThe full-length and deletion mutants cDNAs of Jab1/CSN5 were amplified by PCR and inserted into a pGEX-5 bacterial expression vector (Amersham Biosciences) in-frame with GST. After DNA sequencing, GST-fused Jab1/CSN5 proteins were purified with a GSH-Sepharose (Amersham Biosciences) according to the manufacturer's instructions. FLAG-tagged topo II
proteins were expressed in 293T cells by transfection with SuperFect® reagent (Qiagen). The FLAG-tagged topo II
proteins were immunoprecipitated using anti-FLAG M2 affinity gel (Sigma) and eluted from the resin with a FLAG peptide according to the manufacturer's instructions. The immunopurified FLAG-tagged topo II
proteins (100 ng) were added directly to GST-Jab1/CSN5 fusion proteins immobilized on the GSH beads (100 ng). The mixtures were incubated overnight at 4 °C in a total volume of 1.5 ml of a binding buffer containing 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 150 mM NaCl, 5 mM EDTA, and 1% Triton X-100. After washing three times with the binding buffer, the protein complex was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and subsequent Western blot using anti-FLAG M2 and anti-GST antibodies (Amersham Biosciences).
Antisense Morpholino OligomersA morpholino antisense oligomer specific for human Jab1/CSN5 as well as a standard control oligomer was purchased from Gene Tools (Philomath, OR). The sequences were 5'-CGGACGCCGCCATCGCCGAGGAAG-3' for Jab1/CSN5 and 5'-CCTCTTACCTCAGTTACAATTTATA-3' for the control. Antisense treatments were performed according to the manufacturer's "special delivery protocol." HT1080 and MCF-7 cells were seeded at 6 x 105 and 9 x 105 cells/well, respectively, in a six-well plate 16 h before antisense treatment. Antisense mixtures with the ethoxylated polyethylenizamine special delivery solution were added to the cultures, and cells were incubated for 3 (HT1080) or 6 h (MCF-7). The cells were washed once with phosphate-buffered saline and cultured in normal or glucose-free medium for 18 (HT1080) or 24 h (MCF-7), and the whole cell lysates were prepared for analyzing expression of Jab1/CSN5 and topo II
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| RESULTS |
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When cells are cultured under the stress condition of glucose starvation, topo II
is degraded in a proteasome-dependent manner. Indeed, degradation of topo II
, but not topo II
, was observed in glucose-starved HT1080 cells (Fig. 1A). Degradation of topo II
was suppressed by proteasome inhibitor PSI at 3 µM but not by calpain inhibitor, carbobenzoxyl-L-leucyl-L-leucinal (Z-LL-H), at 50 µM. Likewise, wild-type topo II
tagged with the FLAG epitope at the N terminus was degraded during glucose starvation when it was expressed transiently in HT1080 cells by transfection (Fig. 1C).
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were required for the degradation, we constructed a panel of expression plasmids of topo II
deletion mutants (Fig. 1B) and transfected them into HT1080 cells. Glucose starvation-induced degradation was monitored by Western blot analysis using the anti-topo II
C terminus and anti-FLAG M2 antibodies (Fig. 1C). Deletion mutants from the N terminus (
1675,
11007, and
11287) revealed that the deletion of the ATPase domain led to degradation resistance under glucose starvation conditions. Deletion of the NLS2 region (
NLS2) from the C terminus also resulted in stabilization under the same conditions. In contrast, the
7141287 mutant containing the ATPase domain and the NLS2 region was destabilized by glucose starvation, as was wild-type topo II
. We also found that deletion mutants showed some differences in expression under the normal growth conditions. Although the exact reason is not known, we speculate that these differences are probably a result of alterations in the basal stability of each mutant topo II
protein.
Subcellular Localization of Topo II
Deletion MutantsImmunostaining with anti-FLAG antibody demonstrated that wild-type topo II
localized in the nuclei of HT1080 cells in a predominantly diffusing manner (Fig. 2A). The
7141287 mutant topo II
, which was sensitive to the stress-induced degradation, also localized in the nucleus, and the pattern of immunostaining was similar between wild-type and
7141287 mutant topo II
. In contrast,
NLS2 topo II
, which was resistant to the stress-induced degradation, accumulated mainly in the cytoplasm. A cell fractionation experiment revealed that
NLS topo II
was more abundant in the cytoplasmic fractions than the WT topo II
(Fig. 2B). The action was in agreement with the fact that the NLS2 sequence is the major functional motif for nuclear translocation of topo II
(24, 25). Taken together, these results indicated that nuclear localization of topo II
was a prerequisite for degradation of this enzyme under glucose starvation conditions. Consistent with these findings, endogenous topo II
remained in the nucleus of stressed cells when degradation of topo II
was inhibited by proteasome inhibitors (Fig. 2C).
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ATPase Domain for Stress-induced DegradationThe above results suggested that the sequence within the ATPase domain could affect topo II
stability under glucose starvation stress conditions. To determine the critical region, we constructed deletion mutants within the ATPase domain that were fused with the topo II
NLS2 domain for nuclear localization. Stress-induced degradation of the fusion proteins was monitored as described above. As shown in Fig. 3A, aa1584, 1201, 1170, and 1140 of ATPase-NLS2 fusion proteins were destabilized by glucose starvation but the aa 1130 fusion protein remained stable compared with the others. We further examined the N-terminal deletions of the aa 1170 ATPase-NLS2 fusion protein by co-transfection with the GFP protein (Fig. 3B). Although stress-induced destabilization still occurred when 142 (
N142) and 169 (
N169) residues were deleted, the 1124 deletion (
N1124) led to degradation resistance. The N-terminal deletions also were applied to full-length topo II
(
42,
69, and
124), and essentially, the same results were obtained with respect to the stability under glucose starvation conditions (Fig. 3C).
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and in the aa 1170 ATPase-NLS2 fusion protein, decreased its expression level under normal growth conditions as compared with the 142 deletion (Fig. 3, B and C). The 142 deletion itself had little effect on the expression levels under normal conditions (data not shown). Conversely, the 1124 deletion greatly increased the expression levels in the aa 1170 ATPase-NLS2 fusion protein, although it had only a marginal effect on the full-length topo II
expression under normal conditions (Fig. 3, B and C). These results indicate that the N-terminal regions can affect the stability of topo II
under normal growth conditions.
Identification of GRDD, a Novel Transposable Degradation SignalThis deletion analysis implied that the minimal region necessary for the stress-induced degradation was located between 70 and 140 amino acid residues of topo II
ATPase domain. Indeed, topo II
became resistant to the stress-induced degradation when the 70170 residues were deleted (Fig. 4A). It is important to note that ND70170 topo II
localized in the nucleus (see Fig. 2). We designated the 70170 region of topo II
as GRDD. To evaluate the GRDD of topo II
as a stress-specific degradation signal, we constructed GFP fusion proteins that were fused with topo II
1170 or 70170 residues at the N terminus and topo II
NLS2 domain at the C terminus for nuclear localization (Fig. 4B). The GFP-NLS2 fusion protein (not containing GRDD) was expressed at similar levels under normal and glucose starvation conditions, showing that this fusion protein was insensitive to the mechanism (or mechanisms) of the stress-induced topo II
degradation. By adding GRDD to GFP-NLS2 (aa 1170 and 70170), we found that the protein became vulnerable to degradation under glucose starvation conditions as was observed for topo II
. Thus, the GRDD of topo II
can act as a transposable stress-specific degradation signal.
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has a destruction box-like sequence that is located within GRDD (26). In fact, the amino acid sequence, ENNLISIWN, located between 112 and 120 of topo II
is similar to the consensus sequence of the cyclin B-type destruction box, RXXLXXIXN. To examine the contribution of the destruction box-like sequence, we used
7141287 topo II
, which consisted of the entire ATPase domain and the NLS2 region (Fig. 1). The deletion of amino acids 112120 (
DB) within the GRDD of topo II
had no effect on stress-induced degradation of
7141287 topo II
(Fig. 4C). We concluded that the destruction box-like sequence in GRDD is dispensable for topo II
degradation under glucose starvation conditions.
GRDD-dependent Topo II
Degradation by Jab1/CSN5 Jab1/CSN5 was identified as a candidate protein that interacts with GRDD by a yeast two-hybrid screen using the topo II
ATPase domain (aa 1200 and 1584) as bait. To confirm a physical interaction between topo II
and Jab1/CSN5, we tested the ability of the GST-Jab1/CSN5 fusion protein to bind to immunopurified FLAG-tagged topo II
. Full-length topo II
was captured by the GST-Jab1/CSN5 but not by the GST polypeptide alone (Fig. 5A). The in vitro binding between topo II
and Jab1/CSN5 was dependent on GRDD of topo II
. Indeed, aa 1584 ATPase-NLS2 and
NLS2 topo II
, which contained GRDD, were captured by the GST-Jab1/CSN5. However, ND70170 topo II
and aa 125170 ATPase-NLS2, which lacked the complete GRDD, were not captured by the GST-Jab1/CSN5 (Fig. 5A).
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in vivo, we examined the expression levels of FLAG-tagged topo II
and its deletion mutants in HT1080 cells co-expressing HA-tagged Jab1/CSN5 (Fig. 5, B and C). Similar to glucose starvation, co-expression of Jab1/CSN5 induced the degradation of wild-type topo II
and aa 1584 ATPase-NLS2, which interacted physically with Jab1/CSN5 in vitro. However, Jab1/CSN5 as well as glucose starvation did not affect the expression levels of ND70170 topo II
, which lacked Jab1/CSN5 binding ability. The combination of glucose starvation and Jab1/CSN5 co-expression had no additive or synergistic effect on the topo II
expression, and the two treatments did not seem to affect each other under the experimental conditions. The Jab1/CSN5-induced decrease in aa 1584 ATPase-NLS2 expression was suppressed by proteasome inhibitors PSI, MG132, and lactacystin (Fig. 5C). Thus, similar to glucose starvation, Jab1/CSN5 can stimulate proteasome-mediated degradation of topo II
, and this stimulation occurs in a Jab1/CSN5-topo II
binding-dependent manner. The Jab1/CSN5-stimulated degradation of topo II
also was suppressed by the CSN kinase inhibitor, curcumin (Fig. 5C).
We further examined deletion mutants of Jab1/CSN5 to establish the relationship between degradation and Jab1/CSN5 binding of topo II
. Jab1/CSN5 has a functional domain known as the MPN domain. Co-expression of
MPN Jab1/CSN5 had little effect on degradation of the aa 1584 ATPase-NLS2 of topo II
, whereas co-expression of
C Jab1/CSN5 containing the entire MPN domain down-regulated it similar to full-length Jab1/CSN5 (Fig. 6A). Consistent with this finding was that GST-
C Jab1/CSN5, but not
MPN, interacted physically with full-length topo II
in vitro (Fig. 6B). These results suggested that Jab1/CSN5 stimulated the degradation of topo II
via direct binding in a GRDD- and MPN-dependent manner.
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DegradationTo address whether Jab1/CSN5 mediates degradation of endogenous topo II
under glucose starvation, we examined the effects of curcumin and Jab1/CSN5 antisense morpholino oligomers. As shown in Fig. 7A, curcumin inhibited stress-induced degradation of topo II
in HT1080 cells as effectively as the proteasome inhibitors, PSI, MG132, and lactacystin. Curcumin also inhibited topo II
degradation in MCF-7 cells, and interestingly, it caused a decreased expression of Jab1/CSN5 (Fig. 7C). Applying a Jab1/CSN5 antisense morpholino oligomer, but not scramble control, decreased cellular contents of Jab1/CSN5 by
65% in both HT1080 and MCF-7 cells without affecting those of a different signalosome subunit, CSN1 or CSN8 (Fig. 7, B and C). The Jab1/CSN5 declined as a result of antisense suppressed stress-induced topo II
degradation. These results indicated that Jab1/CSN5 is involved in topo II
degradation under glucose starvation conditions.
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| DISCUSSION |
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is degraded by the proteasome system. In this study, we identified GRDD as the degradation signal that was located between 70 and 170 amino acid residues in topo II
. In the presence of the topo II
NLS2 region for nuclear translocation, GRDD gave the vulnerability to degradation under glucose starvation to GFP as well as various deletion mutants of topo II
. On the other hand,
NLS2 topo II
did not localize in the nucleus and was not subjected to stress-induced degradation, even though it contained the entire GRDD region. These results demonstrated that nuclear localization is a prerequisite for GRDD to act as a degradation signal. In addition, biochemical fractionation analysis showed that topo II
still existed in the nucleus when the stress-induced degradation was inhibited by a proteasome inhibitor (Fig. 2C). Therefore, it is probable that the stress-induced topo II
degradation occurs in the nucleus. Supporting this notion are previous observations that glucose starvation causes the nuclear accumulation of proteasomes, which can affect the efficiency of decreasing topo II
expression under the stress conditions (27). Our present results suggest that GRDD could be protected in a normal conformation of topo II
, possibly by the N-terminal region adjacent to GRDD, because the deletion decreases stability of topo II
under normal growth conditions (Fig. 3C). Taken together, we concluded that GRDD of topo II
is a stress-activated degron acting in the nucleus.
We also demonstrated that Jab1/CSN5 mediates topo II
degradation under glucose starvation. So far, Jab1/CSN5 has been shown to interact with a number of proteins (28). The consequence of the Jab1/CSN5 interaction varies but can be generalized to change protein stability depending on the binding partner proteins. In the case of topo II
, Jab1/CSN5 can promote proteasome-mediated degradation in a binding-dependent manner. Indeed, the ectopic expression of Jab1/CSN5 was sufficient to induce degradation of exogenously co-expressed topo II
. This Jab1/CSN5-induced degradation of topo II
was dependent on GRDD and was inhibitable by proteasome inhibitors as we observed for topo II
degradation under glucose starvation conditions. In addition, we identified GRDD as an element necessary for physical interaction with Jab1/CSN5 in vitro. However, the binding between Jab1/CSN5 and topo II
in vivo has not been detected by immunoprecipitation and subsequent immunoblotting (data not shown). Presumably, this was attributed to a transient feature of the in vivo interaction, leading to degradation of topo II
. At present, the regulatory mechanisms of topo II
degradation mediated by Jab1/CSN5 remain to be determined. Two major mechanisms of Jab1/CSN5 leading to proteolysis have been described: 1) inducing intracellular redistribution (e.g. cyclin-dependent-kinase inhibitor p27Kip1) and 2) phosphorylation (e.g. tumor suppressor p53).
In the case of p27Kip1, the interaction with Jab1/CSN5 promotes the export of p27Kip1 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and enhances its degradation by a proteasome (29). The cytoplasmic shuttling of p27Kip1 was shown recently to occur through the nuclear export signal located between 233242 amino acids of Jab1/CSN5 (30). We noted with great interest that a Jab1/CSN5 deletion mutant that lacked the C-terminal region (amino acids 199334) containing the nuclear export signal lost the ability to induce p27Kip1 degradation. This observation is quite different from our present finding that
C Jab1/CSN5, which lacks amino acids 191334, retained the ability to promote topo II
degradation (Fig. 6). Therefore, it is unlikely that the nuclear export activity of Jab1/CSN5 is involved in topo II
degradation, further supporting the notion that topo II
degradation occurs in the nucleus.
Phosphorylation via interaction with Jab1/CSN5 can be mediated by a Ser/Thr kinase known as the CSN-associated kinase that is co-purified with the CSN complex localizing in the nucleus (3134). In the case of p53, which also binds to Jab1/CSN5 in vitro, CSN-mediated phosphorylation promotes its proteasome-dependent degradation (35). Indeed, the inhibition of the CSN-associated kinase by curcumin or a competitor peptide derived from p53 results in the accumulation of endogenous p53. Consistent with this finding is that topo II
degradation also is inhibited by curcumin (Figs. 5C and 7), suggesting that the CSN-mediated phosphorylation plays a role in targeting topo II
for degradation. In fact, topo II
is a phosphoprotein, and the phosphorylation is involved in the regulation of the activity of this enzyme (4). So far, multiple Ser/Thr phosphorylation sites have been identified, although most of them exist in the C-terminal domain far from the GRDD region. Only one site, Ser-29, has been identified as phosphorylation site present near GRDD in N-terminal ATPase domain (36). However, the substitution of Ser-29 to Ala had no impact on topo II
stability under either normal or glucose starvation conditions (data not shown). Further studies will be needed to determine the significance of CSN-mediated phosphorylation in targeting topo II
for degradation.
The present data demonstrated clearly that the ability of Jab1/CSN5 to interact with and to promote degradation of topo II
depends on its MPN domain. Recently, it has been shown that Jab1/CSN5 can regulate SCF ubiquitin ligase activity through the JAMM motif identified in the MPN domain (37). The JAMM motif was essential for the CSN complex to cleave the ubiquitin-like protein, Nedd8, from the Cul1 subunit of SCF ubiquitin ligases. The Nedd8 modification (neddylation) of Cul1 is known to enhance the recruitment of the E2 enzyme to SCF ubiquitin ligase and thereby stimulate protein polyubiquitylation (38). Thus, the deneddylation activity by the JAMM motif can regulate SCF ubiquitin ligase negatively. In fact, it is reported that a microinjection of purified CSN complex inhibits p27Kip1 degradation through deneddylation of Cul1 of SCF ubiquitin ligase complexes (39). These reports indicate that the MPN domain of Jab1/CSN5 can modulate the ubiquitin system directly. Therefore, it is possible that Jab1/CSN5 functions as an interface between the topo II
GRDD and the ubiquitin system through the MPN domain. Further studies, especially those that identify E3 ligase complexes for topo II
, will be needed to clarify the precise mechanisms of targeting topo II
for proteasome-dependent degradation by Jab1/CSN5.
In addition to glucose starvation, other conditions may lead to proteasome-mediated degradation of topo II
. Indeed, topo II
also is degraded by proteasome during adenovirus E1A-induced apoptosis (20, 26). Proteasome-mediated degradation also appears to be involved in cell cycle-dependent expression of this enzyme, especially in the transition from M to G1 cell cycle phase (40). Although not determined so far, the proteasome might be involved in decreased expression of topo II
in the quiescent cell state. Our present findings would be useful in elucidating the mechanisms of topo II
degradation in these situations. It should then be noted that topo II
often escapes the quiescence- and cell cycle-dependent regulation in tumor cells (15, 41, 42), suggesting that deregulated proteolysis of topo II
may be involved in tumor development by analogy with p27Kip1 (43). Nevertheless, topo II
degradation under glucose starvation has been observed in a variety of solid tumor lines, even in cells where the cell cycle-dependent regulation is abrogated (15, 18). Thus, the GRDD- and MPN-dependent degradation of topo II
might be particularly important for cellular adaptation to severe stress conditions. Meanwhile, topo II
isozyme is degraded preferentially over
-isozyme through a ubiquitin-proteasome pathway when the intermediate-cleavable complex is trapped by the antitumor drug, VM-26 (44). Interestingly, the GRDD region identified in the present study is conserved highly in
-isozyme, and >90% of the amino acids are identical. It will be interesting to see whether the GRDD- and MPN-dependent mechanisms are involved in topo II
degradation as well. We now are investigating the possibility that the GRDD (-like sequence) of topo II
acts as a degron.
High-level expression of topo II
is essential for cell death induced by topo II-directed drugs such as etoposide, VM-26, and doxorubicin. Therefore, development of methods restoring topo II
expression under stress conditions would be important for topo II-directed chemotherapy against solid tumors. Actually, we have shown previously that the proteasome inhibitor lactacystin effectively enhances the antitumor activity of etoposide in a solid tumor model (18). The findings described here indicate that Jab1/CSN5 could be a new selective target for restoring topo II
expression in solid tumors. Indeed, microenvironmental stressors, such as glucose starvation and hypoxia, are not observed in normal tissues, and the Jab1/CSN5-mediated topo II
degradation pathway appears to be selective in stressed cells. Further studies on the mechanisms of how Jab1/CSN5 promotes topo II
degradation would provide selective strategies to enhance topoII-directed chemotherapy against solid tumors.
| FOOTNOTES |
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|| To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 81-3-5841-7861; Fax: 81-3-5841-8487; E-mail: ttsuruo{at}iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
1 The abbreviations used are: topo II
, DNA topoisomerase II
; NLS, nuclear localization signal; GRDD, glucose-regulated destruction domain; HA, hemagglutinin; CSN5, COP9 signalosome subunit5; WT, wild-type; aa, amino acid; GST, glutathione S-transferase; E2, ubiquitin carrier protein; MPN, Mpr1p/Prd1p N terminus; CSN, COP9 signalosome; SCF, SKP1, CUL1/CDC53, F-box protein. ![]()
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