p53-Repressed miRNAs are involved with E2F in a feed-forward loop promoting proliferation.

Normal cell growth is governed by a complicated biological system, featuring multiple levels of control, often deregulated in cancers. The role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the control of gene expression is now increasingly appreciated, yet their involvement in controlling cell proliferation is still not well understood. Here we investigated the mammalian cell proliferation control network consisting of transcriptional regulators, E2F and p53, their targets and a family of 15 miRNAs. Indicative of their significance, expression of these miRNAs is downregulated in senescent cells and in breast cancers harboring wild-type p53. These miRNAs are repressed by p53 in an E2F1-mediated manner. Furthermore, we show that these miRNAs silence antiproliferative genes, which themselves are E2F1 targets. Thus, miRNAs and transcriptional regulators appear to cooperate in the framework of a multi-gene transcriptional and post-transcriptional feed-forward loop. Finally, we show that, similarly to p53 inactivation, overexpression of representative miRNAs promotes proliferation and delays senescence, manifesting the detrimental phenotypic consequence of perturbations in this circuit. Taken together, these findings position miRNAs as novel key players in the mammalian cellular proliferation network.

ERK activation is regulated by E2F1 and is essential for E2F1-induced S phase entry.

The E2F family of transcription factors regulates a diverse array of cellular functions including cell cycle progression, cell differentiation and apoptosis. Recent studies indicate that E2F1 influences the activity of signal transduction pathways. We identify here a novel link between E2F1 and the Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway, namely that E2F1 levels affect growth factor-induced ERK phosphorylation. Specifically, downregulating E2F1 inhibits PDGF-induced ERK phosphorylation and ectopic expression of E2F1 sensitizes cells to PDGF. We demonstrate that E2F1 induces ERK activation via a transcriptional mechanism and upregulates the expression of two guanine nucleotide exchange factors, RASGRP1 and RASGEF1B, which promote Ras activation. Furthermore, we show that E2F1-induced ERK activity is essential for E2F1-induced S phase entry. Current literature dictates that the cyclin D/pRB/E2F pathway lies downstream of the mitogenically activated Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK cascade. Our results indicate that the relationship between these signaling modules is not a simple unidirectional linear one and suggests there exists a positive feedback loop that may enhance both ERK signaling and E2F1 activity.

E2F1 modulates p38 MAPK phosphorylation via transcriptional regulation of ASK1 and Wip1.

The E2F family of transcription factors regulates a diverse array of cellular functions, including cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and apoptosis. Recent studies indicate that E2F can also regulate transcription of upstream components of signal transduction pathways. We show here that E2F1 modulates the activity of the p38 MAPK pathway via E2F1-induced transient up-regulation of p38 MAPK phosphorylation. The mechanism by which E2F1 modulates p38 MAPK phosphorylation involves transcriptional induction of the kinase ASK1, a member of the MAPKKK family that phosphorylates p38 MKKs. Subsequent E2F-dependent down-regulation of the p38 signaling pathway is achieved through E2F-induced up-regulation of Wip1, a phosphatase that dephosphorylates and inactivates p38. Both ASK1 and Wip1 are essential mediators of the E2F-p38 connection: knock down of ASK1 inhibits E2F1-induced phosphorylation of p38, whereas knock down of Wip1 prolongs E2F1-induced p38 phosphorylation. Furthermore, Wip1 knock down enhances E2F1-induced apoptosis. Therefore, our data reveal a novel link between a central signaling pathway and the transcription factor E2F and identify Wip1 as a modulator of E2F1-induced apoptosis.