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Molecular and Cellular Biology, September 1999, p. 6195-6206, Vol. 19, No. 9
0270-7306/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
The Antiapoptotic Gene mcl-1 Is
Up-Regulated by the Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase/Akt Signaling Pathway
through a Transcription Factor Complex Containing CREB
Ju-Ming
Wang,1,2
Jyh-Rong
Chao,2,3
Wannhsin
Chen,1,4
Min-Liang
Kuo,3
Jeffrey J.-Y.
Yen,1,4 and
Hsin-Fang
Yang-Yen1,2,*
Graduate Institute of Life Science, National
Defense Medical School,1 Institute of
Molecular Biology2 and Institute of
Biomedical Sciences,4 Academia Sinica, and
Institute of Toxicology, National Taiwan University Medical
School,3 Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
Received 16 February 1999/Returned for modification 30 March
1999/Accepted 21 June 1999
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ABSTRACT |
mcl-1 is an immediate-early gene activated by the
granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and
interleukin 3 (IL-3) signaling pathways and plays an important role in
the viability response of these cytokines. In this study, we
demonstrated that cytokine stimulation of mcl-1 mRNA and
protein expression were attenuated by pretreatment of cells with
phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K) inhibitors. Reporter gene assays
further showed that the PI3-K/Akt signaling pathway was involved in
IL-3 activation of mcl-1 gene transcription. Analysis of
the mcl-1 promoter revealed that both promoter elements,
SIE at position
87 and CRE-2 at
70, contribute to IL-3 stimulation
of mcl-1 gene expression. Although either the SIE site or
the CRE-2 site alone was sufficient to confer IL-3 inducibility on a
heterologous promoter, only IL-3 activation of the CRE-2 reporter was
mediated via the PI3-K/Akt pathway. The SIE binding activity was
constitutively high in cells deprived of or stimulated by IL-3. In
contrast, the CRE-2 binding activity was low in cytokine-starved cells
and was strongly induced within 1 h following cytokine treatment
of cells. In addition, cytokine induction of the CRE-2 but not of the
SIE binding activity was dependent on activation of the PI3-K/Akt
signaling pathway. Lastly, we showed that CREB was one component of the
CRE-2 binding complex and played a role in IL-3 activation of the
mcl-1 reporter gene. Taken together, our results suggest
that both PI3-K/Akt-dependent and -independent pathways contribute to
the IL-3 activation of mcl-1 gene expression. Activation of
mcl-1 by the PI3-K/Akt-dependent pathway is through a
transcription factor complex containing CREB.
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INTRODUCTION |
Granulocyte-macrophage
colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin 3 (IL-3) are two
members of a family of cytokine growth factors that play an important
role in regulating the viability, differentiation, proliferation, and
function of multipotential hematopoietic progenitors as well as various
other hematopoietic cells (4). They function by binding to
their cognate receptors and triggering a cascade of signaling events
leading to various biological responses. The receptors for GM-CSF and
IL-3 are composed of two subunits, the cytokine-specific
chain and
the common
chain, which is also possessed by the receptor for
another cytokine, IL-5. Ligand binding to these cytokine receptors
induces rapid tyrosine phosphorylation of several cellular proteins,
including the receptor
chain itself, the Jak2 kinase, Shc, vav,
fps, STAT5A, and STAT5B (5, 17, 22, 42, 44, 53).
Cytokine-activated receptors also lead to the activation of the
phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K) and the Ras/Raf/mitogen-activated
protein (MAP) kinase pathway (10, 20, 29, 50, 51) and
transcriptional activation of some immediate-early genes like
c-jun, c-fos, c-myc, cis,
and mcl-1 (7, 9, 60). By deletion analysis, the
cytoplasmic domains of the common
chain responsible for activation
of some of these cellular targets have been defined. The
membrane-proximal domain is important for the induction of
c-myc and cis and for the activation of the Jak2
kinase and the STAT5 proteins (44, 46, 50, 60); the membrane
distal domain is crucial for the induction of c-jun,
c-fos, and mcl-1 and for the activation of the
PI3-K and the Ras/Raf/MAP kinase cascade (7, 50). The activation of the latter two kinase pathways has been shown to be
important for the antiapoptotic activity of GM-CSF and IL-3 (29,
55).
The mcl-1 gene was originally identified as an early gene
induced during differentiation of ML-1 myeloid leukemia cells
(33). Its encoded gene product contains some structural
motifs that characterize it as a member of the Bcl-2 family protein.
Unlike other members of this protein family, Mcl-1 has an extended
N-terminal domain which is rich in PEST sequences (33). The
PEST sequence is probably responsible for the short half-life of this
protein (7, 57). Overexpression of Mcl-1 delays apoptosis
induced by various inducers such as c-Myc overexpression, growth factor withdrawal, and other cytotoxic agents (7, 48, 61). We recently demonstrated that mcl-1 is another immediate-early
gene activated by the GM-CSF and IL-3 signaling pathways and that the mcl-1 gene product is one component of the viability
response of these cytokines (7). Cytokine activation of the
mcl-1 gene is regulated at the transcriptional level and
requires the membrane-distal region between amino acids 573 and 755 of
the common
chain (7). Using transient transfection
assays with luciferase reporters driven by various regions of the
mcl-1 promoter, we further demonstrated that the upstream
sequence between
197 and
69 is responsible for cytokine activation
of the mcl-1 gene (7).
The signaling pathway from PI3-K to the serine/threonine protein kinase
Akt/protein kinase B (PKB) is involved in some cellular responses
induced by growth factors such as insulin, platelet-derived growth
factor (PDGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), insulin-like growth
factor I (IGF-I), basic fibroblast growth factor, IL-2, and IL-3
(1, 6, 11, 19, 32, 34, 41, 55). Overexpression of the
constitutively active PI3-K or Akt/PKB kinase protects apoptosis
induced by various stimuli, including cellular differentiation and
serum withdrawal in conjunction with induced myc activity (18, 26, 27). With the use of specific chemical inhibitors and/or the dominant negative mutants, the survival effects generated by
some of the above-mentioned growth factors and some transforming oncogenes were shown to be mediated through activation of the PI3-K and
Akt/PKB signaling pathway (1, 16, 28, 34, 41, 54, 55).
However, the downstream effectors of this kinase pathway that are
directly responsible for the antiapoptotic activity of various survival
factors are largely unknown.
In this study, we dissected the signaling pathway responsible for
survival factor activation of Mcl-1 expression. We demonstrated that
cytokine stimulation of mcl-1 gene transcription was
mediated through both the PI3-K/Akt-dependent and -independent
pathways. We further showed that CREB was one component of the
transcription factor complex activated by the PI3-K/Akt-dependent
pathway and played a role in IL-3 stimulation of mcl-1 gene expression.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS |
Cell culture.
TF-1 cells (30) were maintained in
RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), 50 µM
-mercaptoethanol, 2 mM L-glutamine, 100 U of penicillin
G/ml, 100 µg of streptomycin/ml, and 1 ng of GM-CSF/ml. Human GM-CSF
was kindly provided by Schering-Plough Ltd., Taipei, Taiwan. For GM-CSF
depletion experiments, TF-1 cells were washed three times in medium
without cytokine and seeded in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 0.5% FBS, 2 mM L-glutamine and 50 µM
-mercaptoethanol. During
restimulation experiments, only GM-CSF (10 ng/ml) was added back to the
cells that had been previously cultivated in low-serum medium
containing no cytokine. Murine IL-3-dependent pro-B (Ba/F3) cells were
maintained in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10% FBS and 1% conditioned
medium from WEHI 3B as a source of IL-3. Ba/F3Akt*-A1 and Ba/F3Akt*-D2
are two representatives clones of Ba/F3 derivatives which stably
overexpress the constitutively active form of the Akt protein (M-Akt
[34]). Ba/F3DNAkt-9H and Ba/F3DNAkt-19M are two other
representative clones of Ba/F3 cells which stably overexpress the
dominant negative mutant of the Akt protein (AktK179M
[34]). Ba/F3hMcl-1 cells are Ba/F3 derivatives stably
overexpressing the human Mcl-1 protein. Two representative clones
(hMcl/17 and hMcl/19) were analyzed. Ba/F3 cells transfected with the
empty expression vectors (Ba/F3Neo) were used as controls. All Ba/F3
derivatives were generated by electroporation with respective
expression vectors and selected in growth medium supplemented with 500 µg of G418/ml. For cytokine depletion and restimulation experiments,
cells were treated essentially as described above for TF-1 cells but
stimulated with 100 U of recombinant IL-3 (R & D Systems, Minneapolis,
Minn.)/ml. For experiments with chemical inhibitors, unless specified,
the following concentrations and compounds were used: wortmannin (0.1 µM), LY294002 (50 µM), PD98059 (50 µM), rapamycin (50 nM), and
cycloheximide (10 mg/ml). All inhibitors were purchased from Calbiochem.
Immunoblotting.
Cells treated under various conditions were
lysed in radioimmunoprecipitation assay buffer and analyzed as
previously described (7). Briefly, 50 µg of cell lysates
were resolved on a sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-containing 12%
polyacrylamide gel, transferred to polyvinylidene difluoride nylon
membranes (Millipore, Bedford, Mass.), and probed with antibodies
specific to Bcl-2, Mcl-1 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz,
Calif.), HA tag (Boehringer, Mannheim, Germany), CREB (a gift of
Ming-Zong Lai, Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei,
Taiwan) (see reference 24), phosphorylated (S-133)
CREB (Upstate Biotechnology, Inc., Lake Placid, N.Y.) or
-tubulin
(Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England). The membrane was then probed with
either horseradish peroxidase-conjugated goat anti-mouse or
goat-anti-rabbit antibody. The specific bands were visualized by an ECL
(enhanced chemiluminescence) Western blot system (Amersham,
Buckinghamshire, England).
Reporter plasmids and luciferase assay.
The luciferase
reporter plasmids containing various regions of the mcl-1
promoter [p(
1288/+10)mcl-luc, p(
203/+10)mcl-luc, and
pB-dl(
197/
69)] have been previously described (7). The numbers in parentheses indicate the nucleotide position with respect to
the transcriptional initiation site (7). Other reporter plasmids shown in Fig. 6 were derived from p(
203/+10)mcl-luc by
site-directed mutagenesis of each individual region as indicated. During the construction of these reporter plasmids, some DNA fragments to be cloned were PCR amplified by using appropriate primers and subcloned into pGL-2-basic vector (Promega). All plasmids constructed in this way were sequenced to confirm their primary structure. Plasmids
pGL2-1XCRE-2, pGL2-1XSIE, and pGL2-1XSC were derived by inserting one
copy of the DNA fragment containing CRE-2, SIE, or both sites (see
below for individual sequences) into the SmaI site of the
pGL2-promoter vector (Promega). To analyze the promoter activity of
these reporter genes, Ba/F3 cells were transiently transfected with
these plasmids by electroporation by using the Bio-Rad gene pulser II
RF module system as previously described (7). Electroporated
cells were seeded in growth medium with or without murine IL-3 (mIL-3).
Twelve hours after reseeding, cells were harvested and assayed for
luciferase activity. A cytomegalovirus-driven chloramphenicol
acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene was cotransfected to correct for
variations in transfection efficiency. For analyzing the effects of
various dominant negative mutants in the reporter gene assays,
electroporated cells were recovered in mIL-3-containing medium for
12 h and then deprived of mIL-3 for 8 h before mIL-3 restimulation was initiated. Three hours after mIL-3 restimulation, cell lysates were prepared and assayed for luciferase activity. This
modified procedure was found to be necessary for obtaining maximal
effect of the dominant negative mutants. The sense strand sequences of
the double-stranded oligonucleotides used in the plasmid construction
and the gel-shift assay (see below) are as follows: SIE,
5'CTTTTACGGGAAGTCC3' (wild type) and
5'CTTTTAGGATCCGTCC3' (mt); CRE-2, 5'TCGCCTGCGTCAGCACG3'
(wt) and 5'TCGCCTGGAATTCCACG3' (mt); and SC fragment,
5'GTACCCCTTTTACGGGAAGTCCTCGCCTGCGTCAGCACGGC3'.
Transient transfection and detection of protein expression by
flow cytometry.
TF-1 cells were transiently transfected with
various expression plasmids by using the liposome-mediated gene
transfer method as previously described (7). The expression
vector driving the synthesis of green fluorescence protein (GFP) was
cotransfected at a one-sixth molar amount of the construct of interest
to assist the identification of the transfected cells by flow
cytometry. Twenty-four hours after transfection, cells were analyzed
for the expression of GFP and various proteins of interest by flow cytometry as previously described (7).
Apoptosis detection by annexin-V staining.
Cells transiently
transfected with constructs of interest plus an expression vector
encoding a GFP protein were fixed in 2% paraformaldehyde at room
temperature for 15 min. After being rinsed with the binding buffer (10 mM HEPES-NaOH [pH 7.4], 140 mM NaCl, and 5 mM CaCl2),
fixed cells were incubated in the same buffer containing
biotin-conjugated annexin-V (Boehringer, Mannheim, Germany) for 20 min
at room temperature. After several washes, annexin-V-bound cells were
revealed by binding to phycoerythrin-conjugated streptavidin, and the
percentages of double positive cells were analyzed by flow cytometry.
Preparation of nuclear extracts and gel-shift assays.
Cells
treated under various conditions were lysed, and nuclear extracts were
prepared according to the method described by Dignam et al.
(14). The gel-shift assay was carried out essentially as
previously described (58). Briefly, the double-stranded
oligonucleotide containing SIE or the CRE-2 site (same oligonucleotides
as described above for reporter gene construction) was 32P
labeled by a kinase or a fill-in reaction. The labeled probe (~0.2
ng) was incubated with extracts for 20 min at room temperature in a
buffer containing 10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 50 mM NaCl, 1 mM
dithiothreitol, 1 mM EDTA, and 10% glycerol. The specific protein complexes were resolved in a 4% native polyacrylamide gel
(acrylamide/bisacrylamide ratio, 80:1) at 4°C. The gel was dried, and
signals were visualized by autoradiography. For antibody-supershifting
experiments, 1 µg of the CREB or control antibody was included in the
binding reaction.
 |
RESULTS |
The PI3-K/Akt kinase pathway is involved in the viability response
of IL-3 and GM-CSF in Ba/F3 and TF-1 cells, respectively.
Activation of the PI3-K/Akt kinase pathway mediates the survival
activity of IL-3 in 32D cells (55). We demonstrated that this was also the case in another IL-3-dependent pro-B cell line (Ba/F3) (Fig. 1). In this experiment,
addition of chemical inhibitors of PI3-K (wortmannin or LY294002) to
Ba/F3 cells accelerated apoptosis of these cells cultivated either in
the presence or absence of IL-3 (Fig. 1A). This cell death acceleration
effect was not present in cells treated with rapamycin, a p70S6 kinase
inhibitor, and was observed only marginally in cells treated with the
MEK inhibitor PD98059. The involvement of Akt kinase in IL-3 viability
response of Ba/F3 cells was evident from studies with Ba/F3 cells
stably overexpressing the constitutively active (Ba/F3Akt*) or the
dominant negative mutant (Ba/F3DNakt) of the Akt protein (see Materials and Methods) (Fig. 1B). As shown in Fig. 1C, when IL-3 was removed from
the growth medium, Ba/F3Akt* cells (two representative clones A1 and
D2) maintained their viability much longer than cells transfected with
the vector control (Ba/F3Neo). In contrast, Ba/F3DNAkt cells (clones 9H
and 19M) underwent apoptosis much faster than the Ba/F3Neo cells. The
rate of apoptosis of the latter two clones correlated well with the
expression levels of the DNAkt protein (compare Fig. 1B and C) and was
consistent with their requirement of higher doses of IL-3 for survival
(ED50 for Ba/F3Neo and clones 19M and 9H were 0.01, 0.03, and 0.14 ng
of IL-3/ml, respectively, data not shown).

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FIG. 1.
The PI3-K/Akt kinase pathway is involved in the
viability response of IL-3 in Ba/F3 cells. (A) Ba/F3 cells cultivated
in growth medium with or without IL-3 were treated with various
chemical inhibitors as indicated. Fifteen hours after each treatment,
cells were harvested and the percentage of apoptotic cells under each
condition was quantified by flow cytometric analysis of cells with a
sub-G1 DNA content. Results shown are means ± standard deviations from three independent experiments. (B) Protein
expression of Ba/F3 cells overexpressing M-Akt (Ba/F3Akt*) or AktK179M
(Ba/F3DNAkt). One hundred micrograms of protein lysates from Ba/F3Akt*
(clones A1 and D2) or from Ba/F3DNAkt (clones 9H and 19M) were analyzed
by immunoblotting with anti-HA antibody (both proteins are HA tagged).
Specific bands are indicated by arrows. (C) Ba/F3 derivatives as
indicated were deprived of IL-3, and the percentage of apoptotic cells
at various time points was measured as described in panel A. During
IL-3 deprivation, these cells were kept in medium containing 10%
instead of 0.5% FBS (see Materials and Methods) to slow the death rate
of Ba/F3DNAkt cells. Results shown here are the averages of two
independent experiments. (D) Same as in panel B except that the cells
analyzed were Ba/F3 cells stably overexpressing human Mcl-1 protein
(Ba/F3hMcl-1) and the immunoblot probed with anti-human Mcl-1 antibody,
which did not cross-react with the murine homologue. Several individual
clones, as indicated by numbers, were analyzed. (E) Ba/F3hMcl-1 cells
were deprived of IL-3 by the standard procedure as described in
Materials and Methods, and the percentage of cells undergoing apoptosis
at various time points was analyzed as described in panel A. Only
results from two representative clones (hMcl/17 and hMcl/19) are shown.
Neo represents control cells that are stably transfected by the empty
expression vector and is a mixture of two stable lines. Results shown
are means ± standard deviations from two independent
experiments.
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Due to possession of the common
subunit of the receptor, GM-CSF
elicits many biological responses that overlap with those induced by
IL-3. We next examined whether GM-CSF also mediated its survival
activity via the PI3-K/Akt signaling pathway. To address this issue,
similar experiments as described above for the Ba/F3 cells were
performed in the TF-1 myeloid progenitor cell line, whose growth is
dependent on human GM-CSF (hGM-CSF) or IL-3 (30). As shown
in Fig. 2A, TF-1 cells underwent
apoptosis upon deprivation of their dependent cytokine as previously
reported (59). Furthermore, as in the case with Ba/F3 cells,
addition of wortmannin or LY294002 but not rapamycin or PD98059 to
growth medium significantly accelerated apoptosis of these cells
cultivated either in the presence or absence of GM-CSF. The involvement
of the PI3-K/Akt kinase pathway in GM-CSF viability response was further supported by the results of the transient-transfection experiment as shown in Fig. 2B. In this experiment, GM-CSF
withdrawal-induced apoptosis was significantly inhibited by transient
overexpression of the constitutively active form of Akt, whereas
transient overproduction of the dominant negative mutant of
PI3-K(
p85 [23]) or of Akt enhanced apoptosis of
TF-1 cells cultivated in the presence or absence of GM-CSF (Fig. 2B).
These results suggest that in TF-1 cells the PI3-K/Akt kinase pathway
is indeed involved in the survival activity of GM-CSF.

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FIG. 2.
The PI3-K/Akt kinase pathway is involved in the
viability response of GM-CSF in TF-1 cells. (A) TF-1 cells cultivated
in growth medium with or without GM-CSF were treated with various
inhibitors for 15 h and analyzed as described in the legend to
Fig. 1A. The percentage of apoptotic cells under each condition was
expressed as the mean ± standard deviation from two independent
experiments. (B) TF-1 cells were transiently transfected with the
constructs of interest plus GFP expression vectors. Twenty-four hours
after transfection, cells were placed in medium with or without GM-CSF
for another 18 h before they were fixed, stained, and analyzed as
described in Materials and Methods. The GFP-positive and annexin-V
bound (apoptotic) cells were quantified by flow cytometry, and the
results are plotted in the left panel. The right-hand panel displays
the flow cytometric results showing expression of each individual
protein in the transfected (GFP positive, gray lines), but not in the
nontransfected (GFP negative, solid peaks), fractions. All proteins
were HA tagged and detected by HA-specific antibody. Vector, Akt*,
hMcl-1, DNAkt, and DNp85 denote cells transfected with an empty
expression vector or vectors expressing M-Akt, human Mcl-1 protein,
AktK179M, and the dominant negative mutant of PI3-K ( p85),
respectively.
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The PI3-K/Akt kinase pathway is involved in cytokine activation of
Mcl-1 expression.
We recently demonstrated that mcl-1
is an immediate-early gene activated by the GM-CSF and IL-3 signaling
pathways and is one component of the viability response of these
cytokines (7). These findings together with the fact that
both GM-CSF and IL-3 activate the PI3-K/Akt pathway in many
factor-dependent cells, including TF-1 and Ba/F3 (55, 56a)
and the fact that Mcl-1 and the activated Akt kinase both protect
apoptosis ([7] Fig. 1C and E, and Fig. 2B) prompted us
to examine the possibility that the PI3-K/Akt kinase pathway is
involved in the cytokine activation of the mcl-1 gene. We
first examined if GM-CSF stimulation of Mcl-1 expression was affected
by wortmannin or LY294002. As illustrated in Fig.
3, when TF-1 cells were pretreated with
either of these two inhibitors, the GM-CSF induction of Mcl-1 protein expression was inhibited in a dose-dependent manner (panels A and B),
whereas the p70S6 kinase inhibitor, rapamycin, did not have any effect
on Mcl-1 induction under the same conditions (panel C). As a control,
the Bcl-2 protein level, previously shown not to be affected by GM-CSF
treatment (7) was not inhibited by any of these three
inhibitors (Fig. 3). We next determined whether a similar inhibitory
effect could be observed in IL-3 stimulation of Mcl-1 expression in
Ba/F3 cells. Due to lack of a good antibody to detect the murine Mcl-1
protein, Northern blotting was employed. The results shown in Fig.
4 indicated that both PI3-K inhibitors, but not rapamycin, inhibited IL-3 stimulation of mcl-1 mRNA expression in Ba/F3 cells.

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FIG. 3.
GM-CSF induction of Mcl-1 expression is attenuated by
PI3-K inhibitors. TF-1 cells deprived of cytokine were pretreated with
various doses of wortmannin (A), Ly294002 (B), or rapamycin (C) for 30 min prior to stimulation with GM-CSF for 1 h. After stimulation,
cells were lysed and 100 µg of protein lysates were resolved by
SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, blotted to membranes, and
analyzed by immunoblotting with antibodies specific to Mcl-1, Bcl-2,
and -tubulin, respectively.
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FIG. 4.
(Top panel) IL-3 induction of mcl-1
expression is attenuated by PI3-K inhibitors. Ba/F3 cells deprived of
cytokine were pretreated with various inhibitors as indicated for 30 min prior to stimulation with IL-3 for 1 h. After stimulation,
total RNA was prepared from these cells and analyzed by Northern
blotting by using a 32P-labeled probe specific for
detection of the murine mcl-1 mRNA. (Bottom panel) The same
RNA samples stained with ethidium bromide before probing.
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As the inhibitory effect on Mcl-1 expression by wortmannin and LY294002
was also observed at the mRNA levels in TF-1 cells
(data not shown), we
next tried to determine if the PI3-K/Akt
pathway was involved in
cytokine activation of the
mcl-1 gene
transcription. To
address this issue, the
mcl-1 luciferase reporter
gene,
p(

1288/+10)mcl-luc, was transiently cotransfected into
Ba/F3 cells,
with expression plasmids driving the synthesis of
the constitutively
active PI3-K (P110* [
31]), M-Akt, the dominant
negative mutant of PI3-K, or the dominant negative mutant of Akt.
As
shown in Fig.
5A, both P110* and M-Akt
activated the
mcl-1 reporter gene in the absence of IL-3.
The weaker transactivation
effect of p110* was probably due to
inefficient expression (Fig.
5C) or partial activation of this protein
(
31) compared to that
of M-Akt. On the other hand,
overexpression of the dominant negative
mutant of PI3-K or of Akt
efficiently inhibited IL-3's ability
to stimulate
mcl-1
promoter activity (panel B). A similar inhibitory
effect was also
observed for GM-CSF induction of the same reporter
gene in Ba/F3 cells
stably overexpressing the hGM-CSF receptor
(data not shown). Taken
together, these results suggest that the
PI3-K/Akt pathway is indeed
involved in IL-3 and GM-CSF activation
of
mcl-1 gene
expression.

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FIG. 5.
The PI3-K/Akt signaling pathway is involved in IL-3
stimulation of mcl-1 reporter gene expression. Ba/F3 cells
were transfected with the mcl-1 reporter gene
[p( 1288/+10)mcl-luc] and various expression vectors as indicated by
a procedure detailed in Materials and Methods. Twelve (A) or 3 (B)
hours after stimulation with IL-3, cell lysates were prepared and
analyzed by luciferase assays. Data shown here are representative
results from three independent experiments performed in duplicate.
Luciferase activities are plotted in arbitrary units. (C) Immunoblots
confirming expression of various proteins encoded by individual
expression vectors (see legend to Fig. 2 for identification of these
vectors). Specific bands are indicated by arrows.
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The mcl-1 gene promoter between
197 and
69 is
essential for PI3-K/Akt activation.
We recently reported that the
mcl-1 promoter sequence between
197 and
69 is required
for IL-3 and GM-CSF stimulation of this gene (7). We next
sought to determine if the same region is necessary for PI3-K/Akt
activation of the promoter. By transient cotransfection of Ba/F3 cells
with the expression vector encoding the constitutively active Akt and
various previously characterized mcl-1 luciferase reporters
(see Fig. 6 in reference
7), we demonstrated
that mutants with 5' deletion of the promoter sequence down to
203
(Fig. 6) still retained full inducibility by M-Akt [only data for
reporters p(
1288/+10)mcl-luc and p(
203/+10)mcl-luc are shown in
Fig. 7A], a result similar to the same
reporter activated by IL-3 (compare Fig. 7A and B). However, deletion
of the internal region between
197 and
69 from the
p(
1288/+10)mcl-luc reporter [i.e., the pB-dl(
197/
69) construct]
completely blocked Akt activation of this reporter gene (Fig. 7A). This
result suggests that the PI3-K/Akt signaling pathway mediates some
stimulatory effects of IL-3 on mcl-1 gene transcription by
activation of some transcription factor(s) that directly or indirectly
recognize the promoter region between
197 and
69.

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FIG. 6.
Schematic representation of constructs used in this
study. The nucleotide sequence encompassing the murine mcl-1
gene promoter from 203 to +10 (7) is shown at the top. The
core sequences of the SIE and CRE-2 sites are underlined. The mutated
sequence in each individual construct is shown in italics. In construct
p( 203/+10)dlC, the CRE-2 core sequence was deleted and is shown as a
dashed line.
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FIG. 7.
Mapping of promoter elements required for PI3-K/Akt and
IL-3 activation of the mcl-1 reporter gene. (A) Ba/F3 cells
cotransfected with the indicated reporter gene and an empty expression
vector ( Akt*) or vector encoding M-Akt (+Akt*) were left in medium
without IL-3 for 12 h before cell lysates were analyzed for
luciferase activity. (B) Same as panel A except that cells were
transfected with the indicated reporter construct alone and were left
untreated ( IL-3) or stimulated with IL-3 (+IL-3) for 12 h. (C)
Ba/F3 cells transfected with the reporter plasmids as indicated plus an
expression vector encoding nothing (Vector), DNAkt, or DNp85 were
starved and restimulated with IL-3 for 3 h before cell lysates
were prepared and analyzed for luciferase activity. The results shown
are averages from five independent transfection assays and are plotted
as relative activities to cells transfected by the same reporter
plasmid and deprived of IL-3. The latter activity was considered to be
100. Numbers inside the bar graph are P values (calculated
by the Student t test) for various conditions as
indicated.
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The CRE-2 and SIE binding motifs contribute to IL-3 stimulation of
mcl-1 gene expression via two distinct pathways.
Within the mcl-1 promoter region between
197 and
69,
there are DNA elements similar to the SIE and CRE-2 binding motifs (25, 56) (underlined sequences in Fig. 6). We wanted to
determine whether these two sequence motifs were involved in IL-3
activation of the mcl-1 gene promoter. By using reporter
genes with mutation of either one or both motifs (Fig. 6), we found
that mutation of the CRE-2 or SIE site alone (
203/+10dlC and
203/+10mS, respectively) diminished IL-3 induction of the promoter by
~40% and that mutation of both sites (
203/+10mSmC) resulted in a
reporter that lost nearly all IL-3 inducibility (Fig. 7B). These
results suggest that both the CRE-2 site and the SIE site do indeed
play an important role in the IL-3 stimulation of mcl-1 gene
transcription. Since these two sites are located in the promoter region
which is essential to PI3-K/Akt activation of the mcl-1 gene
(Fig. 7A), we next wanted to determine if mutation of the CRE-2 or the
SIE-2 site would affect IL-3 activation of mcl-1 expression
through the PI3-K/Akt pathway. For this experiment, the dominant
negative mutants of PI3-K or Akt were cotransfected into Ba/F3 cells
with the parental reporter (
203/+10) or the same reporter without the
SIE (
203/+10mS) or the CRE-2 site (
203/+10dlC) to check if they
could block IL-3 stimulation of these reporters. As shown in Fig. 7C,
the dominant negative mutant of PI3-K or of Akt inhibited IL-3
activation of both
203/+10 and
203/+10mS reporters. In contrast,
IL-3 activation of the mcl-1 reporter without the CRE-2 site
(
203/+10dlC) was not affected by either mutant. These results suggest
that although CRE-2 and SIE sites both contribute to IL-3 stimulation
of mcl-1 gene expression, they apparently play two distinct
roles in this process.
To differentiate further the roles of these two elements in IL-3
signaling, a heterologous promoter placed downstream of a
short DNA
fragment containing the SIE, CRE-2, or both sites (the
SC fragment) was
constructed (see Materials and Methods) and analyzed.
For this
experiment, the simian virus 40 (SV40) promoter in the
pGL2 promoter
vector (Promega) was selected as the heterologous
system, because this
promoter had a minimal activity and was not
significantly affected by
IL-3 in the Ba/F3 cell line used in
this assay (Fig.
8). Insertion of a CRE-2 (pGL2-1XCRE-2)
or SIE
(pGL2-1XSIE) site alone was sufficient to confer IL-3
inducibility
on the SV40 promoter (
P values calculated by
the Student
t test
for pGL2-1XCRE-2 and pGL2-1XSIE are
between 0.01 and 0.02 and
between 0.001 and 0.01, respectively), albeit
the induction was
somewhat weak (

twofold, compare luciferase
activities with or
without IL-3 stimulation in Fig.
8A and B). When
both sites (the
SC fragment) were inserted into this reporter system
(pGL2-1XSC),
the IL-3 inducibility of the SV40 promoter was additively
increased
(Fig.
8). We next examined whether IL-3 activation of these
reporter
genes was mediated through the PI3-K/Akt pathway. To examine
this
possibility, the dominant negative mutants of PI3-K or of Akt
were
cotransfected in the same reporter gene assays to determine
whether
they could block IL-3 stimulation of these reporters.
While expression
of the dominant negative mutant of PI3-K or of
Akt did not have any
significant effect on the IL-3 stimulation
of the SIE reporter
(pGL2-1xSIE), the expression of either dominant
negative mutant
completely inhibited IL-3 stimulation of the CRE-2
reporter
(pGL2-1xCRE,
P < 0.001 and 0.001 <
P < 0.01 for the dominant
negative mutant of Akt and that of PI3-K,
respectively) (Fig.
8B). Interestingly, the IL-3 inducibility of the SC
reporter (pGL2-1XSC)
was only partially inhibited (0.02 <
P < 0.05 for both mutants).
Taken together, these
results clearly indicate that IL-3 stimulation
of the
mcl-1
promoter is mediated through modulation of at least
two transcription
factors, the CRE-2 and SIE binding proteins,
via activation of the
PI3-K/Akt-dependent and -independent pathways,
respectively.

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|
FIG. 8.
(A) CRE-2 and SIE binding motifs can individually confer
IL-3 inducibility on a heterologous promoter (SV40 minimal promoter)
and can work additively in IL-3 stimulation of the same reporter
system. Ba/F3 cells transfected with various reporter plasmids as
indicated were left untreated ( IL-3) or stimulated with IL-3 (+IL-3)
before cell lysates were prepared and analyzed for luciferase activity.
Data shown here are representative of three independent experiments
performed in triplicate. (B) IL-3 stimulation of the CRE-2 but not the
SIE reporter is mediated through the PI3-K/Akt kinase pathway. Ba/F3
cells transfected with the reporter plasmids as indicated plus an
expression vector encoding nothing (Vector), DNAkt, or DNp85 were
processed and analyzed for the luciferase activities as described in
the legend to Fig. 7C. The data shown here are averages from five to
six independent experiments, and the reporter activities of cells
transfected with each reporter but treated under various conditions are
plotted relative to cells transfected by the same reporter plasmid and
deprived of IL-3. The latter activity was considered to be 100. The
IL-3 induction of each reporter was statistically significant compared
to that of the parental reporter (pGL2 promoter), as was the dominant
negative effect of DNp85 or DNAkt on the CRE-2 or the SC reporter. The
P values are as follows: *, 0.01 < P < 0.02; **, 0.001 < P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001;
#, 0.02 < P < 0.05.
|
|
CRE-2 but not SIE binding activity is stimulated by IL-3 via the
PI3-K/Akt pathway.
To further examine how the IL-3 signaling
pathway modulates the activities of CRE-2 and SIE binding proteins,
gel-shift assays with nuclear extracts prepared from cells after
various treatments were carried out. As shown in Fig.
9A, judging from the band (indicated by
an arrow) that was specifically inhibited by the wild-type but not by
the mutant oligonucleotide (compare lanes 6 and 7), CRE-2 binding
activity was very low in cells deprived of cytokine (Fig. 9A, lane 1)
and was rapidly induced within 1 h after stimulation of cells with
IL-3 (Fig. 9A, lanes 2 to 4). The fact that cytokine stimulation of
mcl-1 gene expression does not require any new protein
synthesis (7) prompted us to examine the possibility that
the CRE-2 binding protein(s) preexisted in cells prior to IL-3
stimulation. The result shown in Fig. 9B indicates that this was indeed
the case, since pretreatment of cells with the protein synthesis
inhibitor, cycloheximide, did not interfere with IL-3 stimulation of
CRE-2 binding activity (lane 4). Furthermore, since IL-3 stimulation of
CRE-2 reporter activity was mediated via the PI3-K/Akt pathway, we next
examined whether CRE-2 binding activity was also affected by this
signaling pathway. The result shown in Fig. 9B indicates that CRE-2
binding activity was greatly reduced in extracts prepared from cells
pretreated with wortmannin or LY294002 prior to IL-3 stimulation
(compare lanes 3 and 5 to lane 2). Interestingly, rapamycin, which did
not exert any inhibitory effect on IL-3 induction of mcl-1
expression (Fig. 4), did not have any significant effect on the IL-3
stimulation of CRE-2 binding activity (Fig. 9B, lane 6). As to the SIE
binding activity, a rather different pattern was observed. SIE binding
activity was quite abundant in cytokine-deprived cells and was not
further induced by IL-3 treatment (compare lanes 5 and 6 in Fig. 9C). Furthermore, this binding activity was not affected by any of the
above-mentioned inhibitors (Fig. 9C, compare lanes 7 to 10 to lane 6).

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FIG. 9.
CRE-2 but not SIE binding activity is activated by IL-3
through the PI3-K/Akt-dependent pathway. (A) The gel-shift assay with
probe CRE-2 and nuclear extracts from Ba/F3 cells under various
treatments was carried out as described in Materials and Methods.
Specific DNA-protein complexes (pointed by an arrow) were resolved on a
nondenaturing gel and visualized by autoradiography. Lane 1, extracts
from cells deprived of IL-3; lanes 2 to 4, extracts from cells deprived
of cytokine and restimulated with IL-3 for 1, 3, or 7 h,
respectively; lane 5, same as lane 2; lanes 6 and 7, same as lane 5 except that 100 molar excess of nonlabeled oligonucleotide containing
the wild type (lane 6) or mutant (lane 7) CRE-2 site was included in
the binding reaction. (B) Same experiment as that shown in panel A
except that extracts were made from cells deprived of cytokine (lane
1), from cells restimulated with IL-3 for 1 h (lane 2), or from
cells that were preincubated with Ly294002 (lane 3), cycloheximide
(lane 4), wortmannin (lane 5), or rapamycin (lane 6), respectively, for
30 min before stimulation with IL-3. (C) Same experiment as carried out
in panels A and B except that the labeled SIE probe was used in the
gel-shift assay. Lanes 2 and 3 show the results of competition
experiments with a 100 molar excess of wild-type or mutant SIE
oligonucleotide probe, respectively; lane 4, a lane without loading any
sample; lanes 5 to 10, same treatments as those shown in lanes 1 to 6 of panel B. (D) Results for the same experiment as that whose results
are shown in lanes 1 and 2 of panel B, except that extracts were made
from various cells, as indicated at the top. Odd-numbered lanes,
extracts made from cells deprived of cytokine; even-numbered lanes,
extracts from cells restimulated with IL-3 for 1 h.
|
|
Next, we examined if activation of the Akt kinase was required for IL-3
activation of CRE-2 binding activity. For this experiment,
similar
gel-shift assays were performed with extracts made from
Ba/F3 cells
stably overexpressing the constitutively active (Ba/F3Akt*)
or the
dominant negative mutant (Ba/F3DNAkt) of the Akt kinase.
As shown in
Fig.
9D, CRE-2 binding activity was no longer induced
by IL-3 in either
clone (9H and 19M) of Ba/F3DNAkt cells (lanes
3 to 6), whereas this
binding activity was constitutively active
(irrespective of the
presence or absence of IL-3) in both clones
(A1 and D2) of Ba/F3Akt*
cells. These results, together with that
shown in Fig.
9B, strongly
indicated that CRE-2 binding activity
was activated by IL-3 via the
PI3-K/Akt pathway. Taken together,
these results indicate that although
both CRE-2 and SIE motifs
contribute to IL-3 stimulation of
mcl-1 gene expression, proteins
binding to these two sites
are differentially modulated by the
IL-3 signaling
pathway.
CREB exists in the CRE-2 binding complex and plays a role in IL-3
regulation of mcl-1 gene expression.
IL-3 was reported
to induce phosphorylation of CREB on serine 133 in TF-1 cells
(35). This was also the case in Ba/F3 cells, as revealed by
an increased amount of S-133 phosphorylated CREB in cells stimulated
with IL-3 (compare lanes 1 and 2 in Fig.
10A). The CRE-2 site was demonstrated
to bind CREB in rat liver nuclear extracts (45). We
therefore examined whether CREB exists in the CRE-2 binding complex
characterized in Ba/F3 cells. Using gel-shift assays, we observed that
CREB synthesized in vitro with the TNT coupled reticulocyte lysate
system (Promega) bound specifically to the CRE-2 probe at an affinity
lower than that with which it bound to an oligonucleotide containing
the CRE site (45, 56a). The addition of the CREB-specific
antibody (Fig. 10B, lane 2), but not that of the control rabbit
immunoglobulin G (IgG) (Fig. 10B, lane 1), supershifted the specific
protein complex. Figure 10C shows that the same CREB antibody also
supershifted the protein complex formed on the CRE-2 site in extracts
made from IL-3-stimulated cells (compare lanes 2 and 3). This result
indicates that a CREB-like protein is one component of the CRE-2
binding complex and suggests that CREB or a closely related member
plays a role in the IL-3 regulation of mcl-1 gene
expression. To examine this latter possibility, we tested whether
blocking CREB activity by its dominant negative mutant (CREBS133A)
interferes with IL-3 stimulation of mcl-1 reporter activity.
From three independent transfection experiments, we consistently
observed that IL-3 stimulation of luciferase activities in both
mcl-1 and CRE-2 reporters [p(
203/+10)mcl-luc and
pGL2-1XCRE-2] was significantly reduced in cells cotransfected with an
expression vector driving synthesis of CREBS133A. However, IL-3
induction of the mcl-1 reporter lacking the CRE-2 site
(
203/+10dlC) was not affected by the coexpression of the CREBS133A
protein (Fig. 10D).

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FIG. 10.
CREB is one component of the CRE-2 binding complex and
plays a role in the IL-3 stimulation of the mcl-1 and CRE-2
reporters. (A) Ba/F3 cells deprived of IL-3 overnight (lane 1) or
restimulated with IL-3 for 5 min (lane 2) were lysed, and equal amounts
of cell lysates were analyzed by immunoblotting by using antibodies
specific to S133-phosphorylated CREB (upper panel) or to all forms of
CREB (lower panel). The asterisk denotes a cross-reactive protein
(possibly phosphorylated ATF-1) recognized by the anti-pCREB antibody.
(B) The CREB protein synthesized in vitro with the TNT-coupled
reticulocyte lysate system was allowed to bind to the CRE-2 probe in
the presence of a control rabbit IgG (lane 1) or purified rabbit
anti-CREB antibody (lane 2) prior to being resolved on the
nondenaturing gel. (C) Results for the same experiment as that whose
results are shown in panel B, except that IL-3-stimulated (1 h) Ba/F3
cell extracts were used in the gel-shift assay. Lane 1, no antibody was
present in the binding reaction; lanes 2 and 3, binding assays with
control or CREB-specific antibody, respectively. The solid arrow
indicates the specific DNA-protein complex, and the open arrow
indicates the band supershifted by the antibody. (D) Ba/F3 cells
transiently transfected with a reporter gene, as indicated, plus a
control or CREB S133A expression vector were deprived of IL-3 or
restimulated with IL-3 for 3 h before cell lysates were prepared
and analyzed for luciferase activity. Very similar results were
obtained from three independent transfection assays, and data from one
representative experiment are shown.
|
|
 |
DISCUSSION |
The PI3-K/Akt signaling pathway is involved in the survival effect
of many growth factors and some transforming oncogenes (1, 16, 28,
34, 41, 54, 55). Recent findings demonstrate that the
proapoptotic protein Bad is one cellular target that PKB may
phosphorylate to protect cells from apoptosis (12, 13). However, Bad has a restricted tissue distribution, and not every survival signal that activates Akt stimulates Bad phosphorylation (52), suggesting that PKB may exert its antiapoptotic effect via the activation or inactivation of other cellular targets. In the
present study, we provided evidence that Mcl-1, the survival factor
activated by GM-CSF and IL-3, is another cellular target of the
PI3-K/Akt signaling pathway. Unlike the effect on Bad, the PI3-K/Akt
pathway upregulates Mcl-1 expression at the transcriptional level. As
activation of the PI3-K/Akt pathway and Mcl-1 expression are both
essential to the survival effect of GM-CSF and IL-3 (7, 55, and this report), our results strongly suggest that
transcriptional activation of mcl-1 gene expression by the
PI3-K/Akt pathway is one important mechanism by which GM-CSF and IL-3
exert their survival activity. Our previous results (7) and
the one shown in Fig. 1E indicate that overexpression of Mcl-1 alone
delays but does not completely abolish cytokine withdrawal-induced
apoptosis, suggesting that other cytokine-activated events are required
for full survival activity of GM-CSF and IL-3. It is possible that PI3-K/Akt pathway-mediated phosphorylation of Bad and transcriptional activation of mcl-1 gene expression plus other
yet-to-be-identified events together contribute to the survival effect
of GM-CSF and IL-3. The antiapoptotic protein A1 is another Bcl-2
family member that is transcriptionally activated by the GM-CSF
signaling pathway (38). It would be interesting to examine
if the PI3-K and Akt pathway is also involved in the GM-CSF activation
of the A1 gene.
Activation of Mcl-1 expression by the IL-3 and GM-CSF signaling
pathways occurs at the transcriptional level (7). In the present study, deletion and site-directed mutagenesis analysis indicated that both SIE and CRE-2 DNA elements located in the mcl-1 gene promoter contribute to cytokine activation of
mcl-1 gene transcription. Deletion of either element
diminished IL-3 response by ~40%. Either element alone was
sufficient to confer IL-3 inducibility on a heterologous promoter,
suggesting that both SIE and CRE-2 elements can function independently
of each other but can also work additively to mediate IL-3 stimulation of mcl-1 gene expression. Although both SIE and CRE-2
binding factors may be regulated by the same IL-3-activated signaling pathway, results from this study do not support this hypothesis and, to
the contrary, provide strong evidence that the SIE and CRE-2 elements
are regulated by different IL-3-activated signaling pathways. The CRE-2
element is activated via the PI3-K/Akt pathway, whereas activation of
SIE is mediated through another pathway yet to be identified.
mcl-1 is an immediate-early gene activated by IL-3 and
GM-CSF, and cytokine activation of this gene does not require new
protein synthesis (7). Consistent with this result, in the
present study, we demonstrated that the protein factor(s) binding to
the CRE-2 element is induced by IL-3 with kinetics similar to those for
the IL-3 induction of mcl-1 mRNA expression, and the
induction persists even in the presence of the protein synthesis
inhibitor. This finding suggests that the CRE-2 binding protein(s)
plays a major role in the cytokine regulation of mcl-1 gene
transcription. The CRE-2 site, TGCGTCA, has sequence
homology to the AP-1/TRE (TGACTCA) (3, 37) and
the ATF/CRE sequence motifs (TGACGTCA) (36, 43)
and is an essential element for transcriptional activation of the
proenkephalin gene in response to cyclic AMP (cAMP) and phorbol ester
stimulation (8). Many members from the Fos/Jun and the
ATF/CREB protein family have been reported to bind to the CRE-2 element
in vitro (21, 45). However, the protein complexes formed on
this site in vivo appear to vary in a gene- and cell type-specific
manner (39). Although the full identity of the CRE-2 binding
complex formed in IL-3-stimulated Ba/F3 cells remains to be
characterized, our results strongly suggest that CREB is one component
of this protein complex. Furthermore, based on the following
observations, CREB is likely to be the nuclear target that mediates
PI3-K/Akt activation of mcl-1 gene expression. First,
IL-3-activated CRE-2 binding and transcriptional activities are both
dependent on the PI3-K/Akt kinase pathway. Second, IL-3 induction of
the mcl-1 reporter containing the CRE-2 site, but not that
of the same reporter without the CRE-2 site, is dependent on activation
of the CREB protein (Fig. 10). Third, CREB has recently been shown to
be a regulatory target for the Akt kinase (15). The fact
that Akt translocates to the nucleus upon growth factor stimulation
(2, 40) suggests that upon IL-3 stimulation, Akt
translocates to the nucleus, where it phosphorylates CREB directly or
indirectly and activates transcription of the mcl-1 gene.
This potential scenario warrants further investigation.
As mentioned earlier, another DNA element located at position
87 (the
SIE site) also contributes to IL-3 activation of the mcl-1
gene. Like the CRE-2 element, the SIE site alone is sufficient to
confer IL-3 inducibility on a heterologous promoter. However, IL-3
regulation of this DNA element appears to be quite different from that
of the CRE-2 DNA motif. First, IL-3 activates the SIE site through a
PI3-K/Akt-independent pathway. Second, the SIE binding activity is
constitutively high in Ba/F3 cells and is not enhanced upon IL-3
stimulation. This result suggests that the SIE binding protein
preassociates with the mcl-1 gene promoter on its binding
site and that its transcriptional activity is activated by IL-3 through
a pathway yet to be identified. The core sequence (shown in uppercase
letters below) of the SIE site located in the mcl-1 gene
promoter (gacttCCCGTAaatc) differs from that of the SIE in the c-fos gene promoter
(cagttCCCGTCaatc) by one nucleotide (underlined
base) and is identical to that of the synthetic, high-affinity SIE site
(m67, catttCCCGTAaatc) as previously reported
(56). In addition, five of nine nucleotides in the flanking
sequence (lowercase letters) differ between the SIE in the
mcl-1 gene and that in the c-fos promoter or in
the m67 oligonucleotide. The SIE site contributes to the GM-CSF
activation of the c-fos promoter, and the protein binding to
the high-affinity SIE site (m67 oligonucleotide probe) is very low in
cells deprived of growth factors and is highly inducible by GM-CSF in
TF-1 (47) or by EGF in A431 cells (49). In
contrast, the protein(s) binding to the SIE site in the
mcl-1 gene promoter is quite abundant, and its binding
activity is not affected by IL-3, suggesting that different protein
complexes form on different SIE sites and that the binding components
also vary among the cell types studied. The STAT family of proteins bind to the SIE site in the c-fos promoter (47).
Whether any STAT protein contributes to IL-3 activation of the SIE
element in the mcl-1 gene promoter remains to be determined.
Further experiments are required to reveal the identity of proteins
formed on the SIE site in the mcl-1 gene promoter and to
explore how this protein complex may work additively with the CRE-2
binding protein in the IL-3 regulation of mcl-1 gene expression.
 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
We thank R.-H. Chen for plasmid p110*, Anke Klippel for plasmids
expressing M-Akt and AktK179M, Masato Kasuga for
p85 expression vector, and M.-Z. Lai for anti-CREB antibody and critical reading of
the manuscript.
This work was supported in part by an intramural fund from Academia
Sinica and by grant NSC-87-2311-B-001-096 from the National Science
Council of Taiwan to H.-F. Yang-Yen.
 |
FOOTNOTES |
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of
Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, 128 Yen-Jiou Yuan Rd. Sec. 2, NangKang, Taipei, 11529 Taiwan, R.O.C. Phone: 886-2-2789-9228. Fax:
886-2-2782-6085. E-mail: IMBYY{at}ccvax.sinica.edu.tw.
 |
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Molecular and Cellular Biology, September 1999, p. 6195-6206, Vol. 19, No. 9
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