Fibronectin Extra Domains tune cellular responses and confer topographically distinct features to fibril networks.

Cellular fibronectin (FN; also known as FN1) variants harboring one or two alternatively spliced so-called extra domains (EDB and EDA) play a central bioregulatory role during development, repair processes and fibrosis. Yet, how the extra domains impact fibrillar assembly and function of the molecule remains unclear. Leveraging a unique biological toolset and image analysis pipeline for direct comparison of the variants, we demonstrate that the presence of one or both extra domains impacts FN assembly, function and physical properties of the matrix. When presented to FN-null fibroblasts, extra domain-containing variants differentially regulate pH homeostasis, survival and TGF-ß signaling by tuning the magnitude of cellular responses, rather than triggering independent molecular switches. Numerical analyses of fiber topologies highlight significant differences in variant-specific structural features and provide a first step for the development of a generative model of FN networks to unravel assembly mechanisms and investigate the physical and functional versatility of extracellular matrix landscapes.This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.

SUMOylation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha reduces its transcriptional activity.

The hypoxic response of mammalian cells is controlled through a transcriptional pathway that is mediated by the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF). Here, we show that HIF-1alpha undergoes post-translational modification by the three isoforms of the small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO-1, -2 and -3) in vitro in proximity to and within the oxygen-dependent degradation domain (ODDD). SUMO conjugation is promoted in vitro by the E3 SUMO ligase RanBP2/Nup538 and SUMO modification in vivo does not change HIF-1alpha turnover rate. Using cotransfection of siRNA targeted to endogenous HIF-1alpha together with HIF-1alpha siRNA-resistant expression vectors carrying mutations for SUMO modification we demonstrate increased hypoxia-response element-dependent transcriptional activity for SUMO-deficient HIF-1alpha. These results indicate that when HIF-1alpha is conjugated to SUMO its transcriptional activity is decreased and that this is not mediated by a change in the protein's half-life.

Arrest-defective-1 protein, an acetyltransferase, does not alter stability of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1alpha and is not induced by hypoxia or HIF.

The hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is a key player in a transcriptional pathway that controls the hypoxic response of mammalian cells. Post-translational modification of the alpha subunit of HIF determines its half-life and activity. Among the multiple reported modifications, acetylation, by an acetyltransferase termed arrest-defective-1 protein (ARD1), has been reported to decrease HIF-1alpha stability and therefore impact on hypoxic gene expression. In contrast, we report that both overexpression and silencing of ARD1 had no impact on the stability of HIF-1alpha or -2alpha and that cells silenced for ARD1 maintained hypoxic nuclear localization of HIF-1alpha. In addition, we show that the ARD1 mRNA and protein levels are not regulated by hypoxia in several human tumor cell lines, including cervical adenocarcinoma HeLa cells, fibrosarcoma HT1080 cells, adenovirus-transformed human kidney HEK293 cells, and human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. Using two model systems ((a) wild-type and HIF-1alpha-null mouse embryo fibroblasts and (b) HeLa cells silenced for HIF-1alpha or -2alpha by RNA interference), we demonstrate that the level of expression of the ARD1 protein is independent of HIF-1alpha and -2alpha. We also demonstrate that ARD1 is a stable, predominantly cytoplasmic protein expressed in a broad range of tissues, tumor cell lines, and endothelial cells. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that ARD1 has limited, if any, impact on the HIF signaling pathway.