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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 281, Issue 13, 8707-8715, March 31, 2006
p19ras Interacts with and Activates p73 by Involving the MDM2 Protein*
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| ABSTRACT |
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is a structural and functional homologue of p53, a tumor suppressor gene. In this study, we identified a novel p73
-binding protein, p19ras, by the yeast two-hybrid screening method. Alternative splicing of the proto-oncogene H-ras pre-mRNA has led to two distinct transcripts, p19ras and p21ras. In both endogenous and overexpressed systems, we confirmed that p19ras binds to full-length p73
in vivo and in vitro. Coexpression of p19ras with p73
stimulated the transcriptional activity of p73
. Ras proteins are known to be small membrane-localized guanine nucleotide-binding proteins. However, unlike other Ras proteins, p19ras is localized in the nucleus and the cytosol and its interaction with p73
occurred exclusively in the nucleus. Oncogenic MDM2 (mouse double minutes 2) is a known repressor of p73 transcriptional activity. In this study, when p19ras was bound to MDM2, it further inhibited the association of MDM2 to the p73
protein. In addition, p19ras abolished MDM2-mediated transcriptional repression of p73
. Therefore, this study presents a novel pathway of Ras signaling that occurs in the nucleus, involving p19ras and p73
. Furthermore, a p19ras-mediated novel regulatory mechanism of p73 involving the MDM2 protein is described. | INTRODUCTION |
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MDM2 (mouse double minutes 2) is an oncoprotein that is overexpressed in many human cancers (9). It is well established that MDM2 inactivates p53 activity through monomeric ubiquitination of lysine residues of p53 (1012). In contrast, although p73 binds to MDM2 as well, their interaction does not lead to the proteosomal degradation of p73 (13). Nevertheless, the binding of p73 to MDM2 results in a dramatic inhibition of p73 transactivating activity (14). It has been shown that the binding to a cofactor, p300/CREB-binding protein (CBP),3 is required for the transcriptional activity of p73 and that MDM2 competes with p73 for the p300/CBP (15). In a previous report, we demonstrated that Amphiphysin IIb-1 sequesters nascent p73 proteins in the cytoplasm and thus inhibits its transcriptional activity (16).
Using the yeast two-hybrid screening method, we identified a novel p73
-binding protein, p19ras, which is an alternative splicing variant of c-H-ras (17). Proto-oncogenic Ras family proteins are GTPases that alternatively bind to GDP or GTP and elicit diverse cellular responses, including cell proliferation, differentiation, growth, arrest, and/or apoptosis (1821). The classical Ras proteins include three members, N-Ras, H-Ras, and K-Ras, and their pre-mRNAs are regulated by alternative splicing. K-Ras4A and K-Ras4B, which were produced by alternative splicing in the last exon of the k-ras gene, displayed differential localization (22, 23). Likewise, alternative splicing of H-ras precursor mRNA led to the formation of two transcripts, p19ras and p21ras. The differences in their mRNA are that p19mRNA contains exon IDX (intron D exon) and lacks exon E4A, due to an in-frame stop codon (17, 24).
Recently, stable and abundant expressions of p19ras have been elucidated, but the functional significance of this protein has not been well-studied (25). In contrary to oncogenic p21ras, p19ras lacks transforming potential. For effective Ras signaling, p21ras protein must undergo post-translational modifications that facilitate its attachment to the plasma membrane (22, 23). However, p19ras does not have a Ras C-terminal conserved domain that targets the plasma membrane and is shown to be localized in the cytoplasm and nucleus (25). In addition, p19ras has little GTP binding activity and is devoid of two important GTP-binding sites located in exon E4A of the p21ras (25). Therefore, these findings suggest the presence of fundamental differences in the function and regulation between H-ras splicing variants.
In this study, we describe p19ras as a specific binding protein of p73, in which a direct interaction is important for controlling the transcriptional activity of p73. Furthermore, we demonstrate that p19ras activates p73 by alleviating MDM2-mediated p73 inhibition when p19ras directly binds to MDM2 and disrupts the association of MDM2 to p73. Therefore, we present p19ras as a new member of a growing family that interacts with the MDM2 protein to regulate p73 activity.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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was cloned into the pLexA yeast expression vector (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA), digested with EcoRI, and then ligated. The resulting plasmid containing the C-terminal region of p73
was denoted pLexA-73C (248499 amino acids) and used as bait for the library screening. To confirm bait expression in the yeast system, yeast proteins were prepared by the Horvath and Riezman method, and the lysate was Western blotted using LexA antibodies (Clontech, Palo Alto, CA).
Yeast Two-hybrid ScreeningEGY48 yeast cells were grown in YPD (1% yeast extract, 2% bacto-peptone, 1% glucose) or synthetic dropout medium lacking the appropriate supplements to maintain selections. Yeast transformation was performed with the lithium acetate method. For the transformation of the bait plasmid, several colonies of EGY48 (p8op-LacZ) on the synthetic dropout/Glu/-Ura plate were cultured in YPD medium. Competent cells were transformed with 1 µg of pLexA-73C and 100 µg of salmon sperm DNA. The human brain library in pB42AD (Clontech) was sequentially transformed into the yeast (p8op-lacZ + pLexA-73C). Approximately 2 x 106 transformants were screened for positive colonies growing on synthetic dropout/Gal/Raf/-Ura/-His/-Trp/-Leu containing 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-
-D-galactopyranoside (200 µg/ml). To further confirm the presence of interacting proteins, positive transformants were examined for the expression of the lacZ reporter gene by using a filter assay or a whole plate assay. Yeast plasmid DNA was extracted using glass beads and pB42AD-positive plasmids were transformed into Escherichia coli XL1-Blue (Clontech). Plasmids were isolated and sequenced, and their interactions with p73
were confirmed after the transformation of the plasmids by using a whole plate assay.
In Vitro Binding AssayA pB42AD yeast-inducible vector fragment was cut and ligated into EcoRI- and XhoI-digested pGEX4T1 prokaryotic expression vectors (Amersham Biosciences). The fusion protein was expressed in BL21 and purified on glutathione-Sepharose 4B beads (Promega, Madison, WI). In vitro translated full-length p73
(Promega) was incubated with the GST fusion proteins coupled to the glutathione-Sepharose bead. After 3 h of incubation at 4 °C, the mixtures were washed three times in PBS containing 1 mM DTT (dithiothreitol). The beads were boiled in 5x Laemmli buffer, proteins were resolved by 10% SDS-PAGE (sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis), and gels were exposed to x-ray film after drying.
Antibody ProductionThe polyclonal antibody against the p19ras protein was raised from rabbits using the peptide CSRSGSSSSSGTLWDPPG. The sequences were from 152170 amino acids of the human p19ras with an additional cysteine at the N-terminal end to allow coupling to the keyhole limpet hemocyanin. Preimmune sera from the same rabbits were obtained before immunization. The sera were tested by Western blot analyses from the 293 human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells expressing either the recombinant GFP-p19ras or GFP-p21ras proteins as antigens. The specificity of the purified antibody was further analyzed by a peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blot analysis.
Cell Culture and TransfectionHEK293 and HeLa cells were obtained from ATCC (American type culture collection) (Manassas, VA) and maintained in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (Invitrogen) and penicillin-streptomycin (50 units/ml). H1299 cells were maintained in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. Transient transfection was performed by Lipofectamine (Invitrogen) with different plasmid DNA according to manufacturer's instructions.
In Vivo Binding AssayThe 293 cells were seeded in 100-mm plates at an initial density of 2 x 106 cells and allowed to grow for 24 h. The cells were transfected with the respective plasmids, further incubated for 42 h, and lysed by sonication. For the confirmation of endogenous interaction of p19ras with p73, 293 cells were treated with 2 M doxorubicin for 24 h to stimulate p73 expression. For immunoprecipitation assays, cell lysates were incubated with an appropriate antibody (0.8 µg) in PBS for 3 h at 4 °C. Following the addition of protein A/G-agarose beads, the reaction was incubated overnight at 4 °C with rotation. The beads were washed three times in PBS containing 1 mM DTT, resuspended in SDS sample buffer, and boiled for 5 min. Samples were analyzed by Western blotting, using the appropriate antibodies to detect protein expressions. The polyclonal antibody against the p73 protein generated from GST-p73
was previously raised in the rabbit (26). The monoclonal GFP and FLAG antibodies were purchased from Roche Applied Science and Sigma, respectively. The polyclonal HA, MDM2, p21ras,
-tubulin, and retinoblastoma (Rb) antibodies were from Santa Cruz Biotechnology.
Luciferase AssayThe 293 cells were cultured in 60-mm dishes and transfected with the firefly luciferase p21 reporter gene (500 ng) and pCMV
(500 ng) (Promega), together with 500 ng of pcDNA-HA73
, pcDNA3-MDM2, and/or pEGFP-p19ras by using the appropriate luminometer tubes. After 38 h of transfection, cells were lysed in reporter lysis buffer (Promega). Cell extracts were analyzed with the luciferase reporter assay system using a Lumat LB 9501 Berthold Luminometer. Luciferase activities of the p21-luciferase vector were normalized based on
-galactosidase activity of the cotransfected vector.
Immunofluorescence StainingCOS-7 cells were grown on a sterile coverslip in 60-mm dishes and transfected with indicated expression vectors using Lipofectamine. Two days after transfection, cells were fixed with 80% acetone and incubated with mouse anti-FLAG IgG antibody (1:500) (Santa Cruz Biotechnology), followed by Cy3-conjugated goat anti-mouse IgG (Amersham Biosciences). Cells were simultaneously incubated with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (Sigma) for 30 min. Plates were washed three times in PBS and the fluorescence was photographed using a Nikon microscope (Nikon, Tokyo, Japan).
Preparation of Subcellular FractionsHeLa cells were washed with ice-cold PBS, harvested by centrifugation, and lysed in Buffer A (10 mM HEPES (pH 7.9), 10 mM KCl, 0.1 mM EDTA, 0.1 mM EGTA, 1 mM DTT, and 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride) for 15 min. For cell lysis, 10% of Nonidet P-40 was added and vortexed for 10 s. After centrifugation at 5,000 rpm for 30 s, the supernatant (cytosolic extracts) was transferred to a new tube. The pellet was added to ice-cold Buffer C (20 mM HEPES (pH 7.9), 0.4 M NaCl, 0.1 mM EDTA, 0.1 mM EGTA, 1 mM DTT, and 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride), incubated for 15 min at 4 °C, and centrifuged at 14,000 rpm for 5 min. The supernatant (nuclear extracts) was transferred to new tubes and kept frozen at -70 °C until use.
RNA Interference; siRNA of p19rasPCR primers (5'-ACCAAGTCTTTTGAGGACATCCAC-3' and 5'-TCACATGGGTCCCGGGGGGTCCCA-3') were designed to amplify a 256-bp fragment from the 3' end of the p19ras gene. The PCR products were two separate clones containing the same target region, but in different orientations. The resulting plasmid templates were used in the silencer siRNA mixture kit (Ambion, Austin, TX) to prepare siRNA mixtures according to the manufacturer's protocol. The templates were used in an in vitro transcription reaction to generate double-stranded RNA. After a brief purification step, 15 µg of the resulting double-stranded RNA was digested with Dicer (Ambion) at 37 °C for 16 h. The digestion products were then purified with the siRNA purification units (Ambion) to remove any un-digested double-stranded RNA. The resulting siRNA population was quantitated using a spectrophotometer and visualized on a 20% non-denaturing acrylamide gel. 293 cells were transfected with the p19ras siRNA using Lipofectamin 2000 (Invitrogen). p73 siRNA was purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology, and the siRNA were transfected to HEK293 or SK-OV-3 using transfection reagent provided by the same manufacturer or Lipofectamin 2000 (Invitrogen), respectively, according to provided protocols.
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| RESULTS |
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-galactosidase activity (Fig. 1A).
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Physical Interaction of p73 with p19rasTo determine the interaction of p19ras to the full-length p73
, GST-fused p19rasC (56170 amino acids) was produced and used in an in vitro binding assay with [35S]methionine-labeled full-length p73
. Consistent with the interaction in yeast, p73
was bound to GST-p19rasC, but not with GST alone (Fig. 2A). To further validate this interaction in vivo, we examined the coprecipitation of full-length HA-p73
and GFP-p19rasC from transiently transfected HEK293 cells. Cell lysates were incubated with anti-GFP antibody, followed by Western blotting with anti-HA antibody. The HA-73
protein was coimmunoprecipitated with GFP-p19rasC (Fig. 2B). Thus, these results confirmed that the full-length p73
interacts with p19rasC both in vivo and in vitro.
The expression of endogenous p19ras cDNA was abundant in HeLa, HEK293, and SH-SY5Y cells (data not shown). Under the conditions that stimulate p73 expression using doxorubicin, p19ras immunoprecipitated endogenous p73 from the 293 cells, but p21ras did not (Fig. 2C). Likewise, p73 also immunoprecipitated endogenous p19ras from the 293 cells (Fig. 2D).
Furthermore, the specificity of p19 binding to p73 was assessed by determining the interaction of p21rasV (Val-12), a constitutively active form of p21ras (27), with p73. As shown in Fig. 2E, p21rasV did not interact with p73
under the same conditions as p19ras did. In addition, we examined the in vivo binding of p19ras to p53 family, p53, p73
, and p73
. Results demonstrated that p19ras interacts with both p53 and the p73 isoforms (Fig. 2F).
Determination of the Binding Region of p19ras to p73The next step was to determine the p73
-binding domain of p19ras. Since p19ras can be grouped into regions I, II, and III based on the alignment of other Ras proteins (H-Ras, K-Ras, and N-Ras), we constructed truncated mutants of p19ras. After transfection of the p19ras (p19rasC1, -C2, and -C) mutants and p73
into the HEK293 cells, overexpressed GFP-p19ras was immunoprecipitated with anti-GFP antibody, and the immunoprecipitates were Western blotted using anti-HA antibody to detect p73
. As shown in Fig. 3A, neither region II (p19rasC1) nor region III (p19rasC2) bounded to p73
. Instead, the p19rasC mutant containing the amino acids 5687 in region I interacted with p73
, suggesting that this is the binding region responsible for the interaction with p73
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Assessment of p19ras-binding Region of p73To define the region of p73
that is required for the interaction with p19ras, we performed in vivo binding assays with p19ras and a series of truncated proteins that contained distinct domains of p73
. Although the transactivation domain (TAD)-containing region (amino acids 1131) of p73 did not appear to interact with p19ras, the p73 DNA-binding domain (DBD)-containing region (amino acids 54310) strongly interacted with p19ras. The p19ras oligomerization domain (OD)-containing region (amino acids 310499) also interacted with p19ras, but the binding was weaker than with the DBD-containing region as more of GFP-tagged p19ras protein was immunoprecipitated with less amount of p73
-DBD peptide precipitated (Fig. 3B). Therefore, this showed that p19ras interacts with both the DBD and OD of p73
, but its binding is more prominent and sufficient with the DBD.
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in the Nucleus Since p73 predominantly locates in the nucleus, we determined whether p19ras colocalizes with p73 in cultured mammalian cells using immunocytochemistry. The p19ras protein was localized in both the nucleus and cytoplasm, as detected by anti-GFP antibody (Fig. 4A). Colocalization of p19ras and p73 in the same cell was assessed using double immunofluorescence. HeLa cells were transfected with GFP-p19ras and HA-73
. GFP-p19ras was immunostained with green dye, and HA-73
was visualized by red fluorescence. As shown in Fig. 4B, p19ras and p73 colocalize in the nucleus. To further confirm the colocalization and interaction of p19ras and p73 in the nucleus, H1299 cells were transfected with GFP-p19ras and HA-73
and nuclear, and cytosolic fractions were separated. The extracts were immunoprecipitated with anti-GFP antibody and detected by Western blot analysis using the anti-HA antibody. To ensure the complete separation of subcellular fractions, marker proteins (
-tubulin and Rb) were immunoblotted. Therefore, consistent with immunocytochemistry data, p19ras specifically interacts with p73
in the nucleus (Fig. 4C).
Increased Transcriptional Activation of p73 by p19rasTo examine whether p19ras could affect p73
-dependent transcriptional activation, HeLa cells were transiently transfected with the p73
expression plasmid and a luciferase reporter plasmid containing the p73-responsive element from p21 promoter, together with or without the p19ras expression plasmid. As shown in Fig. 5A, p19ras alone did not induce the luciferase reporter activation and coexpression of p19ras with p73
resulted in the increase of p21-luciferase activity, which was induced by p73 in a concentration-dependent manner. In addition, we measured the transcriptional activity of p73
in the presence of p19rasC1, a mutant that does not bind to p73
, to test the necessity of p19ras interaction in the functional activation of p73
. The mutant (p19rasC1) was unable to activate the transcriptional function of p73
(Fig. 5A), indicating that the additional activation of p73
required its physical association with p19ras. Transfection of p19ras siRNA into HEK293 cells effectively decreased both overexpressed GFP-p19ras and endogenous p19ras expression (Fig. 5B, top panel). The silencing of p19ras itself reduced transcriptional activity of p73
in some degrees and further prevented overexpressed p19ras-mediated additional activation of p73 transactivity (Fig. 5B, top panel). Thus, these data coherently demonstrate that p19ras is a positive regulatory protein of p73
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A Direct Interaction of p19ras to MDM2The binding of MDM2 to p73 does not target p73 for degradation but suppresses the transcriptional function of p73 (13, 15). We investigated whether the p73
activation by p19ras could be the result of inhibiting p73
-MDM2 interaction. First, we examined the amount of p73-MDM2 complexes in the presence of a p19ras in H1299 cells. Expression of p19ras remarkably inhibited the p73
-MDM2 interaction (Fig. 6A). Interestingly, coprecipitated p19ras was detected in the anti-MDM2 immunoprecipitates (Fig. 6A), raising the possibility that p19ras could be associated with p73
and/or MDM2. To examine whether p19ras could interact with MDM2, we performed coprecipitation experiments using HEK293 cells transfected with MDM2 and p19ras expression plasmids. As shown in Fig. 6B, p19ras clearly immunoprecipitated with MDM2 in the absence of p73, confirming that MDM2 interacts with the p19ras protein. The interaction of p19ras with MDM2 in Fig. 6B could be mediated by endogenous p73. Thus, we silenced the expression of endogenous p73 by transfecting siRNA of p73 and performed immunoprecipitation experiments in HEK293 (Fig. 6C) and p53-null SK-OV-3 cells (Fig. 6D). Regardless of the presence of p73, p19ras directly interacts with MDM2 in both cells. Under the conditions that stimulate p73 expression using doxorubicin, endogenous p19 doxorubicin was still interacted with endogenous MDM2 in the p73 siRNA-transfected HEK293 cells (Fig. 6C). Furthermore, we examined the interaction with MDM2 using p73 siRNA-transfected SK-OV-3 cells, which are deficient in p53. We also identified that the p19ras could be directly interacted with MDM2 in the absence of p53 protein (Fig. 6D). Therefore, we demonstrate that the p19ras is directly interacted with MDM2 in the absence of p73, p53, or both proteins.
Abrogation of MDM2-mediated p73 Inhibition by p19rasThese results raise the possibility that p19ras may abrogate the inhibitory effect of MDM2 on p73
through its interaction with MDM2. To test the possibility that p19ras blocks MDM2-mediated inhibition of the transcriptional activity of p73
, we first determined the binding region of p19ras to MDM2. As shown in Fig. 6E, p19rasC1 and -C2 lost their association with MDM2 as with p73
, and an interaction was still detected by p19rasC mutant protein. Subsequently, we performed a luciferase assay with MDM2, p73, and p19ras in H1299 cells. Consistent with previous studies, MDM2 significantly reduced the level of p73
-mediated luciferase activity (Fig. 6F). Strikingly, p19ras completely abolished the transcriptional inhibition caused by MDM2 (Fig. 6F). In addition, a p19rasC1 mutant that lacks the interaction with both p73 and MDM2 (Fig. 6E) was not effective in blocking MDM2-induced transcriptional repression of p73 (Fig. 6F), suggesting that p19ras-mediated blockage of the inhibitory effect of MDM2 on p73 requires the association of p19ras to p73, MDM2, or both (Fig. 6F). Since the binding region of p19ras to p73
and MDM2 overlaps, any further conclusion requires more studies.
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| DISCUSSION |
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. Moreover, p19ras was also able to bind to p53 and p73
indicating that the binding may be an essential and common feature of the p53 family proteins. We also observed that p19ras is capable of activating p73
-dependent transcriptional activity of a reporter containing the p21ras promoter. Furthermore, we demonstrated that p19ras directly interacts with MDM2, a repressor of p73, which may results in the inhibition of MDM2 binding to p73. Consequently, p19ras blocks MDM2-mediated transcriptional repression of p73 and leads to the activation of p73. Recently, it has been shown that the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A1, SR proteins, and the RNA-dependent helicase p68 regulate alternative splicing events of c-H-ras (24). Alternative splicing of the c-H-ras precursor mRNA produced two transcripts: p19ras (H-Ras IDX) and p21ras (H-Ras4A). The difference in their sequences exists only at the C terminus region, constituting a short stretch of amino acids. The mutant study of p19ras suggests that the sequences between amino acids 56 and 87 are required for the binding with p73 (Fig. 3A) and MDM2 (Fig. 6E). Although p21ras and its active mutant form, p21rasV, retain this region, they were not able to interact with p73 (Fig. 2), suggesting that the C-terminal end sequences are also important for association with p73. Current data indicate that the sequences in the C terminus end may significantly affect the conformation of Ras proteins in the selective and proper association with binding partners. However, further studies are needed to reach a conclusion.
Binding of GTP to Ras is accompanied by a conformational change in Ras, allowing it to bind to various effector proteins, including c-Raf, a kinase involved in triggering the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway (28, 29). Unlike p21ras, p19ras has little GTP binding activity, as it lacks two important GTP-binding sites located in the C terminus end (E4A) of the p21ras (25). This difference in p19ras and p21ras may affect their localizations and functions, but the function of the p19ras protein has not been described previously. For effective Ras signaling, p21ras proteins must undergo post-translational modifications that facilitate their attachment to the plasma membrane (22, 23). Our data and a previous report show that p19ras is localized in the cytoplasm and the nucleus, while p21ras resides in the plasma membrane where it associates with GTP for further signaling (25), and p73 resides exclusively in the nucleus where it interacts with p19ras (Fig. 4). It has been reported that p21rasV is localized in the nucleus and cytoplasm (27). Although the mutant p21rasV was present in the nucleus, it did not result in binding to p73, suggesting that the lack of interaction between p21ras and p73 may not be due to different localization but to differences in sequences among Ras proteins.
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,
,
,
,
,
,
, and
N-p73) have been cloned from various species (30). Many of these isoforms differ in their C-terminal sequences and transactivating activities (31). According to our data, p19ras binding to
isoform of p73 was mediated mainly by the DNA-binding domain of p73 (Fig. 3B). Therefore, p19ras would be a likely and common regulator for other splicing variants of p73, since they all possess the DNA-binding motif. However, the binding ability of p19ras to diverse p73 proteins and the elucidation of the functional roles of each interaction require additional studies. Furthermore, we tested the physiological significance of binding between p19ras and p73 by assessing modulations in the transcriptional activityofp73.p19rassignificantlyincreasedtheactivityinaconcentration-dependent manner, in which the stimulatory effect was mediated by the direct binding of p19ras to p73 (Fig. 5). It has been shown that the p73 protein is regulated by diverse factors, including MDM2, MDMX, p300/CBP, Amphiphysin IIb-1, ASPP (apoptosis-stimulated proteins of p53) 1 and 2, c-Abl (cellular Abelson oncogene), c-Myc, CTF2 (CCAAT-binding transcription factor 2), Cyclin G, HCV (hepatitis C virus protein), MM1, PMS2 (mismatch-repair protein s2), WT1 (Wilms tumor protein), and YAP (Yes-associated protein) (15, 16, 3243). Among these regulators, MDM2 is a well known repressor of p73 and p53, but its inhibitory effect on p73 does not involve degradation. Thus, we further tested the possibility that p19ras-mediated stimulatory effects on p73 involved the blockage of the repression of MDM2. Surprisingly, p19ras also interacted with MDM2 directly and completely abolished MDM2-mediated inhibition of p73 activity (Fig. 6). The association of p63 to p19ras and its ability to modulate p63 activity would be interesting to investigate, since MDM2 activates the transcriptional effect of p63, whereas it represses the transcriptional effects of p73 and p53 (44).
In addition, we found that p19ras significantly decreases the physical contact between MDM2 and p73
(Fig. 6A). The following are possible speculations that may lead to the inhibitory effect of p19ras: 1) p19ras binding to p73 prevents the association of MDM2 to p73; 2) p19ras binds to MDM2, which prohibits the interaction of MDM2 to p73; 3) the direct contact of p19ras to both p73 and MDM2 simultaneously affects conformation of both proteins; and/or 4) the interaction of p19ras to MDM2 increases the degradation of the MDM2 protein. Regardless, our findings provide a solid molecular and functional linkage between p73, MDM2, and p19ras in cell signaling.
Also, we observed that p19ras reduced the expression of MDM2 protein in H1299 cells deficient of p53 (Fig. 6). p19ras may act as a negative regulator of p21ras, which induces MDM2 via the Raf-MEK-ERK-ARF pathway, but this is unlikely, since p19ras does not interact with Raf (25, 45, 46). Another possibility is that p19ras may promote the degradation of MDM2. MDM2 possesses the activity of an E3 ubiquitin ligase, which autoubiquitinates as well as ubiquitinates other proteins. The balance between autoubiquitination and substrate ubiquitination of MDM2 is modulated by post-translational modifications, including sumoylation and phosphorylation. Thus, protein-protein interactions may affect MDM2 E3 ligase activity. At the same time, it is possible that p19ras acts in the same manner as ARF and L11, which sequester MDM2 in the nucleus. Although the underlying mechanism needs further study, our current data suggest that p19ras is a novel inhibitor of MDM2.
Despite more than 2 decades of intensive study, the effects of Ras on cell physiology remain to be fully elucidated. In this respect, it is important to note that our findings contribute to a functional linkage between p19ras and p73
in the biological network, showing that p19ras associates with and regulates p73
by involving its negative regulator, the MDM2 protein.
| FOOTNOTES |
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This article was selected as a Paper of the Week. ![]()
1 These authors contributed equally to this work. ![]()
2 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Dept. of Biological Science, College of Natural Sciences, Chung-Ang University, Heuksuk Dong, Dongjak Ku, Seoul 156-756, Korea. Tel.: 82-2-820-5209; Fax: 82-2-824-7302; E-mail: khchoi{at}cau.ac.kr.
3 The abbreviations used are: CBP, CREB-binding protein (where CREB is cAMP-responsive element-binding protein); GST, glutathione S-transferase; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; DTT, dithiothreitol; GFP, green fluorescent protein; HA, hemagglutinin; siRNA, small interfering RNA; TAD, transactivation domain; DBD, DNA-binding domain; OD, oligomerization domain. ![]()
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