RESUMEN
The proteins p73 and p63 are members of the p53 protein family and are involved in important developmental processes. Their high sequence identity with the tumor suppressor p53 has suggested that they act as tumor suppressors as well. While p63 has a crucial role in the maintenance of epithelial stem cells and in the quality control of oocytes without a clear role as a tumor suppressor, p73's tumor suppressor activity is well documented. In a recent study we have shown that the transcriptional activity of TAp63α, the isoform responsible for the quality control in oocytes, is regulated by its oligomeric state. The protein forms an inactive, dimeric and compact conformation in resting oocytes, while the detection of DNA damage leads to the formation of an active, tetrameric and open conformation. p73 shows a high sequence identity to p63, including those domains that are crucial in stabilizing its inactive state, thus suggesting that p73's activity might be regulated by its oligomeric state as well. Here, we have investigated the oligomeric state of TAp73α by size exclusion chromatography and detailed domain interaction mapping, and show that in contrast to p63, TAp73α is a constitutive open tetramer. However, its transactivation potential depends on the cellular background and the promoter context. These results imply that the regulation of p73's transcriptional activity might be more closely related to p53 than to p63.
Asunto(s)
Proteínas de Unión al ADN/química , Proteínas de Unión al ADN/fisiología , Proteínas Nucleares/química , Proteínas Nucleares/fisiología , Dominios y Motivos de Interacción de Proteínas/fisiología , Activación Transcripcional/fisiología , Proteínas Supresoras de Tumor/química , Proteínas Supresoras de Tumor/fisiología , Secuencia de Aminoácidos , Línea Celular Tumoral , Proteínas de Unión al ADN/análisis , Humanos , Proteínas de la Membrana/análisis , Proteínas de la Membrana/química , Proteínas de la Membrana/fisiología , Datos de Secuencia Molecular , Proteínas Nucleares/análisis , Conformación Proteica , Isoformas de Proteínas/análisis , Isoformas de Proteínas/química , Isoformas de Proteínas/fisiología , Proteína Tumoral p73 , Proteínas Supresoras de Tumor/análisisRESUMEN
p73 and p63 are two homologs of the tumor suppressive transcription factor p53. Given the high degree of structural similarity shared by the p53 family members, p73 and p63 can bind and activate transcription from the majority of the p53-responsive promoters. Besides overlapping functions shared with p53 (i.e., induction of apoptosis in response to cellular stress), the existence of extensive structural variability within the family determines unique roles for p63 and p73. Their crucial and specific functions in controlling development and differentiation are well exemplified by the p63 and p73 knockout mouse phenotypes. Here, we describe the contribution of p63 and p73 to human pathology with emphasis on their roles in tumorigenesis and development.
Asunto(s)
Proteínas de Unión al ADN/genética , Evolución Molecular , Proteínas Nucleares/genética , Transactivadores/genética , Proteína p53 Supresora de Tumor/genética , Proteínas Supresoras de Tumor/genética , Animales , Humanos , Isoformas de Proteínas , Factores de Transcripción , Proteína Tumoral p73RESUMEN
p73 and p63, the two ancestral members of the p53 family, are involved in neurogenesis, epithelial stem cell maintenance and quality control of female germ cells. The highly conserved oligomerization domain (OD) of tumor suppressor p53 is essential for its biological functions, and its structure was believed to be the prototype for all three proteins. However, we report that the ODs of p73 and p63 differ from the OD of p53 by containing an additional alpha-helix that is not present in the structure of the p53 OD. Deletion of this helix causes a dissociation of the OD into dimers; it also causes conformational instability and reduces the transcriptional activity of p73. Moreover, we show that ODs of p73 and p63 strongly interact and that a large number of different heterotetramers are supported by the additional helix. Detailed analysis shows that the heterotetramer consisting of two homodimers is thermodynamically more stable than the two homotetramers. No heterooligomerization between p53 and the p73/p63 subfamily was observed, supporting the notion of functional orthogonality within the p53 family.