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Molecular and Cellular Biology, March 1999, p. 2155-2168, Vol. 19, No. 3
Heinrich-Pette-Institut für
Experimentelle Virologie und Immunologie an der Universität
Hamburg,
Received 27 March 1998/Returned for modification 7 May
1998/Accepted 8 December 1998
In this study we further characterized the 3'-5' exonuclease
activity intrinsic to wild-type p53. We showed that this activity, like
sequence-specific DNA binding, is mediated by the p53 core domain.
Truncation of the C-terminal 30 amino acids of the p53 molecule
enhanced the p53 exonuclease activity by at least 10-fold, indicating
that this activity, like sequence-specific DNA binding, is negatively
regulated by the C-terminal basic regulatory domain of p53. However,
treatments which activated sequence-specific DNA binding of p53, like
binding of the monoclonal antibody PAb421, which recognizes a
C-terminal epitope on p53, or a higher phosphorylation status, strongly
inhibited the p53 exonuclease activity. This suggests that at least on
full-length p53, sequence-specific DNA binding and exonuclease
activities are subject to different and seemingly opposing regulatory
mechanisms. Following up the recent discovery in our laboratory that
p53 recognizes and binds with high affinity to three-stranded DNA
substrates mimicking early recombination intermediates (C. Dudenhoeffer, G. Rohaly, K. Will, W. Deppert, and L. Wiesmueller, Mol.
Cell. Biol. 18:5332-5342), we asked whether such substrates might be
degraded by the p53 exonuclease. Addition of Mg2+ ions to
the binding assay indeed started the p53 exonuclease and promoted rapid
degradation of the bound, but not of the unbound, substrate, indicating
that specifically recognized targets can be subjected to exonucleolytic
degradation by p53 under defined conditions.
0270-7306/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Different Regulation of the p53 Core Domain
Activities 3'-to-5' Exonuclease and Sequence-Specific DNA
Binding
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address:
Heinrich-Pette-Institut für Experimentelle Virologie und
Immunologie an der Universität Hamburg, Martinstr. 53, D-20251
Hamburg, Germany. Phone: 49-40-480 51-261. Fax: 49-40-480 51-117. E-mail: deppert{at}hpi.uni-hamburg.de.
Molecular and Cellular Biology, March 1999, p. 2155-2168, Vol. 19, No. 3
0270-7306/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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