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Molecular and Cellular Biology, June 2002, p. 3663-3673, Vol. 22, No. 11
0270-7306/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/MCB.22.11.3663-3673.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710
Received 11 September 2001/ Returned for modification 29 October 2001/ Accepted 7 March 2002
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Under most circumstances, B-Myb is unable to activate transcription of its cognate target genes and indeed it may even repress the basal level of transcription of the genes with which it associates (1, 19, 23, 28, 37). However, in proliferating cells it has been observed that as cells progress from the G1 phase to the S phase of the cell cycle, there is an increase in both the expression level and the transcriptional activity of B-Myb. The enhanced expression level can likely be explained by the fact that the B-Myb promoter contains a functional E2F binding site (18). The G1-S phase-restricted manifestation of B-Myb transcriptional activity appears to require the activity of cdk2/cyclin A (1, 19, 28, 37). Direct phosphorylation of B-Myb by cdk2/cyclin A has been demonstrated, though it is not clear how this modification actually enables B-Myb transcriptional activity. It has been suggested that phosphorylation is required in order to overcome an inhibitory function contained within the carboxyl terminus of the receptor, as deletion of this region of the protein enables B-Myb transcriptional activity in the absence of phosphorylation (19, 36). It has not been determined whether the inhibitory activity of the carboxyl terminus of B-Myb is mediated by an autoinhibitory intramolecular interaction or if it requires an intermolecular association with a corepressor protein.
Many transcription factors require an activating event such as ligand binding or phosphorylation to enable them to manifest transcriptional activity. However, B-Myb distinguishes itself from most transcription factors in that its transcriptional activity appears to be actively suppressed. Moreover, in the absence of an activating event this transcription factor may suppress the basal transcription of target genes. Thus, it is not clear if B-Myb activation merely requires it in order to overcome repression or if a second event, subsequent to relief of repression, is required in order to permit it to manifest transcription activity. In looking for insights into this issue, we noticed the similarity between the proposed mechanisms of action of B-Myb and of the nuclear receptor for thyroid hormone (TR). Specifically, it has been shown that TR resides on the promoters of target genes in the absence of the hormone and is able to repress transcription by bringing to target genes the nuclear receptor corepressors N-CoR and SMRT (9, 14). Upon activation by ligand, the corepressors are displaced, coactivators are recruited, and TR-mediated transcriptional activation is permitted. Based on the similarity of the mechanisms of action of TR and B-Myb, we hypothesize that the nuclear receptor corepressors N-CoR and SMRT may be involved in B-Myb action (9, 14). N-CoR and SMRT are homologous corepressors that can associate with the unliganded TR and the retinoic acid receptor, enabling these receptors to repress the basal transcriptional activity of their respective target genes. Within these proteins, specific repression domains that function by recruiting class I and II histone deacetylases (HDACs) to target gene promoters have been mapped (13). When associated with DNA, this complex can deacetylate chromatin and silence transcription. In addition to their ability to interact with nuclear receptors, N-CoR and SMRT have also been shown to interact with and regulate the transcriptional activities of a variety of unrelated transcription factors, including Hox, MyoD, MAD, and SHARP (3, 4, 13, 33). Thus, the influence of these corepressors appears to be more universal than originally anticipated. Consequently, we have investigated whether the corepressors N-CoR and SMRT have roles in regulating the transcriptional activity of B-Myb.
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GST pull-down assay. Glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion proteins were expressed in bacterial strain BL21 and were isolated by glutathione-conjugated Sepharose 4B beads (Pharmacia). Proteins incorporating [35S]methionine ([35S]Met) were generated by the TNT kit (Promega). GST fusion proteins and beads were incubated with [35S]Met-labeled protein in NETN buffer (20 mM Tris-HCI [pH 8.0], 1 mM EDTA, 50 mM NaCl, and 0.5% NP-40) for 16 h at 4°C. Bound proteins were washed twice with NETN buffer and twice with buffer A (2 mM Tris-HCl [pH 7.4], 0.5 mM EDTA, 0.5% NP-40) and were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and autoradiography.
Cell culture and transfection. All cultured cells were maintained in minimum essential medium (Life Technologies) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, 0.1 mM nonessential amino acids, and 1 mM sodium pyruvate. Culture dishes were precoated with 0.1% gelatin for 10 min at 25°C. Cells were grown at 37°C in 5% CO2. Protocols for transient transfection and luciferase assays were essentially as previously described (8). Briefly, cells were split among 10-mm-diameter culture dishes (for coimmunoprecipitation [co-IP]) and 24-well plates (for luciferase assay) 1 day before the transfection. The lipid-mediated transient transfection was performed with a mixture of Lipofectin (Life Technologies) and plasmid DNA containing 3 µg of DNA for a triplicate of luciferase assay in a 24-well plate (Corning Incorporated) or 18 µg of DNA for a 10-mm-diameter dish (Falcon). Cells were incubated with the Lipofectin-DNA mixture for 3 to 7 h and were then incubated in normal media for an additional 24 to 48 h. For the luciferase assays, luciferase readings were normalized using signals of ß-galactosidase (ß-Gal) and the final results were shown as means ± standard deviations of triplicate measurements. All data shown are representative of at least three experiments.
Immunoprecipitations and Western blots. Cultured cells were washed with phosphate-buffered saline and lysed with buffer T containing 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.4), 120 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 0.5% Triton X-100, and protease inhibitors (Roche Molecular Biochemicals) for 30 min on ice. The whole-cell lysates were clarified by centrifugation and were then precleared by protein A-Sepharose CL-4B (Amersham Biosciences) for 1 h at 4°C. Antibody was then mixed with lysates for 2 h at 25°C or overnight at 4°C. Protein A-Sepharose was added for 2 h and then washed with buffer T for 30 min. Immunoprecipitated proteins were separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and transferred to a Hybond-C nitrocellulose membrane (Amersham Biosciences). The membrane was blocked with a buffer containing 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.4), 500 mM NaCl, and 5% nonfat dried milk for 1 h. Primary antibody (1 to 3 µg) was diluted in phosphate-buffered saline plus 0.1% Tween 20 and was incubated with the membrane for 2 h at 25°C or overnight at 4°C. Subsequently the secondary antibodies (diluted 1 to 4,000) were incubated with the membrane for 1 h at 25°C. Anti-B-Myb rabbit polyclonal (N-19), anti-N-CoR goat polyclonal (C-20), anti-myc mouse monoclonal (9E10), anti-myc rabbit polyclonal (A14), and anti TRß1 (J51) mouse monoclonal antibodies were from Santa Cruz Biotechnology.
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FIG. 1. B-Myb interacts with C'N-CoR and C'SMRT. (A) Schematic diagrams of N-CoR, SMRT, and B-Myb are adapted from previous reports (15, 31). (B) B-Myb interacts with C'N-CoR and C'SMRT in a mammalian two-hybrid assay. The interaction between GAL4 fusion and VP16 fusion was measured through a mammalian two-hybrid assay on the 5XGal4Luc3 reporter plasmid in CV1 cells. A cytomegalovirus ß-galactosidase (CMV-ß-Gal) internal control plasmid was used to normalize the luciferase values for transfection efficiency. Means ± standard deviations of triplicates are shown. Results are representative of three independent assays. (C) B-Myb197-704 interacts with C'N-CoR and C'SMRT in the mammalian two-hybrid assay using the same assay conditions as those described for panel B. Results are representative of three independent assays.
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FIG. 2. B-Myb interacts with N-CoR and SMRT in cells. (A) Co-IP between B-Myb and N-CoR759-2453. 293T cells were transfected with pcDNA3-B-Myb and pcDNA3-Myc-N-CoR759-2453 plasmids and were grown for an additional 48 h. Whole-cell lysates (2 mg of total protein) were immunoprecipitated with rabbit anti-B-Myb and were then immunoblotted with mouse anti-myc. (B) 293T cells were transfected with pcDNA3-Myc-N-CoR759-2453 plus pcDNA3-B-Myb plasmids (upper panel, labeled 1) or by pcDNA3-Myc-N-CoR759-2453 plus pcDNA3-TRß1 plasmids (lower panel, labeled 2). Equal molar amounts of pcDNA3-B-Myb and pcDNA2-TRß1 were used in the transfection, and equal amounts of cell lysates were used in immunoprecipitation. Mouse anti-myc was used for panel 1 and rabbit anti-myc was used for panel 2 for immunoprecipitation. Input, 1%. (C) Co-IP between endogenous B-Myb and N-CoR. Whole-cell lysates of untransfected 293T cells were immunoprecipitated with rabbit anti-B-Myb and were then immunoblotted with goat anti-N-CoR. (D) B-Myb interacts with N-CoR domain ID1 (aa 2063 to 2142) in a GST pull-down assay. Two micrograms of GST or GST-ID1 were incubated with 10 µl of TNT lysates containing 35S-labeled B-Myb. Protocols are as described in Materials and Methods. Input, 10%.
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As a final step in evaluating the physical interaction between B-myb and N-CoR, we used in vitro GST pull-down assays to define the region(s) within N-CoR that mediate this interaction (Fig. 2D). Since C'N-CoR interacts with both B-Myb and nuclear receptors such as TR, we considered it possible that the two proteins interact with the same domain within N-CoR. Thus, we examined whether B-Myb can interact with the minimal nuclear receptor IDs of N-CoR. Specifically, the interaction of B-Myb with ID1 (aa 2063 to 2142), an 80-aa domain within C'N-CoR, was assessed, and it was found that this domain was indeed capable of interacting with B-Myb.
N-CoR and SMRT function as repressors of B-Myb transcriptional activity. The observation that B-Myb and N-CoR or SMRT interact raised the possibility that these corepressors may negatively regulate B-Myb transcriptional activity. If this were the case, then B-Myb transcriptional activity should be enhanced in cells in which the repression activity of endogenous N-CoR and SMRT is inhibited. To test this idea, we used the following three approaches to inhibit the activities of the two repressors and assessed the effects of these manipulations on B-Myb transcriptional activity: (i) the dominant negative inhibitors C'N-CoR or C'SMRT were expressed, (ii) unliganded TRß was expressed as a competitive inhibitor of B-Myb-corepressor interactions, and (iii) trichostatin A (TSA) was used to inhibit the HDAC activity associated with N-CoR and SMRT. The transcriptional activity of B-Myb was assessed in transfected CV-1 cells by using a reporter plasmid, 3A-TK-luc, that contains three copies of the Myb binding site A from the mim-1 gene (25) (Fig. 3A). As expected, B-Myb expression alone was not sufficient to activate the 3A-TK-luc reporter. However, coexpression of C'N-CoR or C'SMRT did permit a significant increase in B-Myb transactivation activity (Fig. 3A). A similar result was achieved when we overexpressed TR (TRß1) to sequester endogenous SMRT and N-CoR (Fig. 3B). It has been shown previously that unliganded TR forms a stable complex with the C terminus of N-CoR and SMRT and that the complex is dissociated when TR interacts with its cognate hormone T3 (9, 14). Not surprisingly, therefore, the ability of TR to enhance the transactivation activity of B-Myb was lost when T3 was added to the transfected cells (Fig. 3B). We believe that the slight enhancement of reporter activity observed in the presence of overexpressed C'N-CoR, C'SMRT, or TRß1 in the absence of a B-Myb expression plasmid may represent an enhancement of the transcriptional activity of the endogenously expressed B-Myb protein.
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FIG. 3. Inhibition of the repression function of N-CoR and SMRT releases B-Myb transactivation activity. (A) CV1 cells were transfected with 3A-luc reporter, cytomegalovirus ß-galactosidase (CMV-ß-Gal) internal control vector, and the plasmids pcDNA3-B-Myb, pcDNA3-C'N-CoR, and pCMX-C'SMRT as indicated. Empty pcDNA3 was added to assays to ensure that each assay contained equal amounts of CMV promoters. The result is a representative of three independent assays. (B) CV1 cells were transfected with 3A-TK-luc reporter, CMV-ß-Gal internal control vector, and pcDNA3-TRß. T3, 100 nM. (C) HepG2 cells were transfected with various amounts of pcDNA3-B-Myb. Empty pcDNA3 was added to assays to ensure that each assay contained equal amounts of CMV promoters. TSA, 20 nM. (D) CV1 and 293T cells were transfected with pcDNA3-B-Myb. TSA, 20 nM. Results are representative of three independent assays.
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N-CoR and SMRT act through the previously defined negative regulatory domain of B-Myb. It has been shown by others that truncation of the C terminus of B-Myb releases the constitutively repressed B-Myb transactivation activity (19, 36). Consistent with this, using transiently transfected HepG2 cells, we observed that a B-Myb mutant (B-Myb1-561) that is truncated at the C terminus displays markedly stronger transactivation activity than the full-length B-Myb (Fig. 4A). We next investigated whether the corepressors SMRT and N-CoR can interact with the B-Myb1-561 mutant. Using a mammalian two-hybrid assay, we found that VP16-B-Myb1-704 interacts in a robust manner with Gal4-C'N-CoR and Gal4-C'SMRT while VP16-B-Myb1-561 displays essentially no corepressor binding activity (Fig. 4B). We confirmed that the VP16-B-Myb1-561 fusion protein was properly expressed by demonstrating that it was able to activate transcription of the Myb-responsive 3A-TK-luc reporter (Fig. 6C). Thus, a correlation was established between enhancement of B-Myb1-561 transcriptional activity and loss of N-CoR and SMRT binding activity. This correlation was further demonstrated by the observation that unlike that of full-length B-Myb (Fig. 2), the transcriptional activity of B-Myb1-561 cannot be enhanced by C'N-CoR, C'SMRT, unliganded TRß, or TSA (Fig. 4C and D).
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FIG. 4. C-terminal truncation of B-Myb loses N-CoR binding activity. (A) HepG2 cells were transfected with 3A-TK-luc, cytomegalovirus ß-galactosidase (CMV-ß-Gal), and the plasmids as indicated. Each assay contains equal amounts of CMV promoters. (B) HepG2 cells were transfected with 5XGal4Luc3, CMV-ß-Gal, and the plasmids as indicated. The results for the mammalian two-hybrid assays are representative of three independent experiments. (C) HepG2 cells were transfected with 3A-TK-luc, CMV-ß-Gal, and the plasmids as indicated. (D) HepG2 cells were transfected with 5XGal4Luc3, CMV-ß-Gal, and the plasmids as indicated. TSA (20 nM; vehicle, ethanol) was added 24 h after transfection, and cells were grown for additional 24 h.
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FIG. 6. C-Myb does not associate with N-CoR. (A) HepG2 cells were transfected with 3A-TK-luc, cytomegalovirus ß-galactosidase (CMV-ß-Gal), and the plasmids as indicated. The plasmid for B-Myb is pcDNA3-B-Myb, and its control vector is pcDNA3. The plasmid for c-Myb is pRMb3SV/c-Myb, and its control vector is pR3SV. Each assay contains equal amounts of CMV promoters. (B) HepG2 cells were transfected with 5XGal4Luc3, CMV-ß-Gal, and the plasmids as indicated. The results for the mammalian two-hybrid assays are representative of three independent experiments. (C) HepG2 cells were transfected with 3A-TK-luc, CMV-ß-Gal, and the plasmids as indicated.
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FIG. 5. Several B-Myb domains are required for B-Myb/N-CoR interaction. The domain structure of B-Myb was adapted from findings by Saville and Watson (31). B-Myb DNA binding domain (DBD), transactivation domain (TA), conserved region (CR), and negative regulatory domain (NRD) encompass residues 1 to 210, 197 to 340, 470 to 550, and 561 to 704, respectively. Individual domains, combinations of domains, and complementary regions of such domain(s) were generated as VP16 fusion. Their N-CoR binding activities were measured by their ability to associate with Gal4-C'N-CoR in the mammalian two-hybrid assay in CV1 cells. N-CoR binding (fold) was the fold activation in the two-hybrid assay.
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Cdk2/cyclin A-mediated phosphorylation blocks the ability of B-Myb to interact with corepressors. It has been shown previously that phosphorylation of B-Myb by cdk2/cyclin A enhances its transcriptional activity in U-2OS, SAOS-2, and QT6 cells (1, 19, 28, 37). Consistent with these observations, we found that in HepG2 cells expression of cdk2/cyclin A markedly enhances B-Myb's ability to transactivate the 3A-TK-luc reporter (Fig. 7A). A dominant negative form of cdk2, cdk2DN, that lacks kinase activity has been developed (34). When this protein was expressed with cyclin A in HepG2 cells, it had no effect on B-Myb transcriptional activity (Fig. 7A). The transcriptional activity of B-Myb1-561, unlike that of B-Myb, was not affected by cyclinA/cdk2 (Fig. 7B). In fact, the insensitivity of B-Myb upon cyclin A treatment has also been observed by others (6). Since we have shown that B-Myb, but not B-Myb1-561, interacts with corepressors N-CoR and SMRT, we hypothesized that cdk2/cyclin A-mediated phosphorylation could affect the interaction between B-Myb and the negative regulatory factors N-CoR and SMRT.
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FIG. 7. Cyclin A/cdk2 destabilizes N-CoR-B-Myb interaction. (A) Cyclin A/cdk2 releases B-Myb transactivation activity. HepG2 cells were transfected with 3A-TK-luc, cytomegalovirus ß-galactosidase (CMV-ß-Gal), pcDNA3-B-Myb, and plasmids as indicated. Results shown are representative of three independent experiments. (B) Effects of cyclin A/cdk2 on the transactivation activity of B-Myb1-561. HepG2 cells were transfected with 3A-TK-luc, CMV-ß-Gal, pcDNA3-B-Myb, and plasmids as indicated. (C) CV1 cells were transfected with 5XGal4Luc3, CMV-ß-Gal, and plasmids as indicated. Results for the mammalian two-hybrid assay are representative of three independent assays. (D) 293T cells were transfected with the plasmids indicated and incubated at 37°C for 40 h. The whole-cell extract was generated for immunoprecipitation with rabbit anti-B-Myb antibody. Mouse anti-myc was used in Western blotting to detect myc-N-CoR759-2453. Rabbit anti-B-Myb was used to confirm the precipitated B-Myb.
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CBP interacts with and potentiates B-Myb transcriptional activity. Thus far, our studies have indicated that inhibition of the activity of corepressors N-CoR and SMRT is a key step in the activation of B-Myb. However, the identities of the positive acting factors which interact with the derepressed B-Myb proteins and permit it to activate transcription have not been well characterized. Recently, it has been shown that CBP, a general coactivator protein, can interact with B-Myb (6). We have been able to confirm this finding in our model systems using a co-IP assay to demonstrate that CBP is capable of associating with B-Myb (not shown). These interactions were confirmed in a two-hybrid assay which indicated that B-Myb, specifically a domain spanning residues 197 to 340, was able to interact with CBP (Fig. 8A). This particular region of B-Myb (aa 197 to 340) has previously been shown to constitute the TA of this coactivator. In light of these findings, we considered that it might be possible to increase the dynamic range of B-Myb transactivation by inhibiting the corepressor function of N-CoR and SMRT, thus facilitating the coactivator function of CBP. Consequently, we investigated whether CBP and N-CoR (or SMRT) cooperate in the regulation of B-Myb transactivation activity. The results of our transcription assay suggested that coexpression of CBP stimulates B-Myb transactivation activity (Fig. 8B). When the HDAC inhibitor TSA is added, the activity of B-Myb is enhanced, and further potentiation of B-Myb activity is achieved when both TSA and CBP are present. It appears, therefore, that the activity of B-Myb in target cells may be subject to (i) positive regulation by coactivators such as CBP and (ii) negative regulation by corepressors such as N-CoR (or SMRT).
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FIG. 8. CBP interacts with B-Myb and potentiates B-Myb transcriptional activity. (A) CBP interacts with B-Myb197-704 and B-Myb197-340 in a mammalian two-hybrid assay. CV1 cells were transfected with 5XGal4Luc3, cytomegalovirus ß-galactosidase (CMV-ß-Gal), and the plasmids as indicated. (B) Effects of CBP and TSA on a B-Myb transcription assay. 293T cells were transfected with 3A-TK-luc, CMV-ß-Gal, and plasmids as indicated. TSA concentration, 20 nM. Results are representative of three independent assays.
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Based on our findings and those of others, we propose a simple model to explain how B-Myb transcriptional activity is regulated by the corepressors N-CoR and SMRT and by the coactivator CBP (Fig. 9). Specifically, we suggest that under most circumstances B-Myb activity is suppressed as a consequence of its ability to interact with N-CoR or SMRT. However, during the S phase of the cell cycle two distinct events can occur. First, there is an increase in B-Myb expression that may enable a titration of the available corepressors and decrease the threshold for activation. Secondly, at the S phase of the cell cycle the cdk2/cyclin A pair can phosphorylate B-Myb, an event that leads to the disruption of the interaction between B-Myb and the corepressors. When the negative influence of the corepressor is removed, CBP is able to interact with the transactivation domain of B-Myb and its positive transcriptional activity is manifest. This model would suggest that alterations in the integrity, expression level, or activity of N-CoR or SMRT would have a profound effect on B-Myb transcriptional activity. We believe that these studies provide compelling evidence that N-CoR and/or SMRT is a physiologically relevant negative regulator of B-Myb transcriptional activity, an association that suggests that these corepressors may be involved in cell cycle regulation.
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FIG. 9. Schematic model illustrating how N-CoR and SMRT cooperate with CBP in regulating B-Myb transcriptional activity.
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In this study we have found that the transcriptional coactivator CBP interacts directly with the previously defined transactivation domain within B-Myb. We do not know whether the coactivator and the corepressor bind to B-Myb simultaneously or whether displacement of the coactivator is required for subsequent coactivator recruitment. Until recently, the sequential model was favored. However, there is an increasing amount of evidence that suggests that transcriptional repression and activation may be more closely regulated than was previously thought. This position is supported by the recent demonstration that the nuclear receptor cofactor SHARP can interact with both the coactivator SRA and the SMRT/HDAC corepressor complex (33). In another study, p300 (a coactivator) and Groucho (a corepressor) were demonstrated to bind separate domains of the transcription factor NK-4 (10). Of more direct relevance to our studies, however, was the demonstration that the homeobox protein heterodimer Hox-pbx, N-CoR, and CBP exist in a single complex and that PKA-mediated phosphorylation of Hox-pbx by PKA permits this transcription factor to activate target gene transcription (3, 30). Interestingly, PKA-mediated phosphorylation of Hox-pbx enhances its ability to interact with CBP. Whether phosphorylation has any effect on the interaction of corepressors with this transcription factor pair is not known. However, it appears that the regulation of B-Myb transcriptional activity occurs in a manner that is similar to that of other well-characterized transcription factors. Interestingly, we found in a previous study that addition of 8-Br-cAMP, a PKA activator, to cells was sufficient to abolish the interaction between the N-CoR and the human progesterone receptor (35). Thus, phosphorylation may be a general way of displacing N-CoR and SMRT from transcription factors.
In addition to B-Myb, N-CoR and SMRT have been shown to interact with numerous other transcription factors (3, 4, 13, 33). Thus, although originally classified as regulators of the transcriptional activity of nuclear receptors, they are clearly involved in a more diverse array of cellular processes. N-CoR and SMRT are not abundant proteins, and therefore it is likely that alterations in the expression levels or activities of these corepressors would impact several different processes. With respect to the corepressors themselves, it has been shown that genetic disruption of the corepressor N-CoR in mice gives a complicated embryonic lethal phenotype (16). This suggests that N-CoR and SMRT are not able to substitute for each other in all circumstances. In breast tumors that are resistant to the antiestrogen tamoxifen, a previous study has demonstrated that the corepressors are significantly down-regulated (20). Whereas these studies conclude that corepressor down-regulation permits tamoxifen to manifest agonist activity and that this explains tumor progression, it is equally likely that derepression of B-Myb or other transcription factors may also be involved. Given that N-CoR and SMRT interact with different transcription factors in cells, it is possible that a pathological overexpression of any one of these partners could titrate out the available corepressors and enhance the activity of multiple, functionally unrelated, transcription factors. In support of this hypothesis, we demonstrated that overexpression of apo-TR leads to an enhancement of B-Myb transcriptional activity. A mechanism such as this may help to understand the puzzling observation that overexpression of B-Myb can activate the HSP70 promoter despite the fact that a B-Myb binding site in this promoter has not yet been identified (12).
This work was supported by a U.S. Army breast cancer research grant to X.L. (DAMD17-00-1-0234) and an NIH grant to D.P.M. (DK50494).
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