Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Molecular and Cellular Biology, July 2005, p. 6225-6234, Vol. 25, No. 14
0270-7306/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/MCB.25.14.6225-6234.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Kathryn A. O'Donnell,3
Jung-whan Kim,4
Jason T. Yustein,5
Linda A. Lee,2 and
Chi V. Dang1,3,4,6*
Divisions of Hematology,1 Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine,2 Department of Cell Biology,6 Graduate Programs in Human Genetics and Molecular Biology,3 Pathobiology,4 Department of Pediatrics, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland5
Received 12 January 2005/ Returned for modification 22 February 2005/ Accepted 11 April 2005
|
|
|---|
|
|
|---|
Large-scale gene expression analysis in rat or human systems suggests that overexpression of Myc induces nuclearly encoded mitochondrial genes (7, 20, 31, 37, 38, 46). Genes that bind to Myc in Drosophila, rat, or human systems include those encoding mitochondrial proteins or those involved in mitochondrial biogenesis (15, 31, 33, 36, 38, 47). Collectively, these studies suggest that Myc could affect mitochondrial protein expression. Here, we sought to determine the effects of Myc on mitochondrial biogenesis in an inducible Myc-dependent human B-cell model of cell proliferation, a well-defined Rat1 fibroblast system that has been rendered Myc null through homologous recombination, and a model of conditional Myc knockout in primary murine hepatocytes (10, 30, 44). Not only did we observe that mitochondrial biogenesis depends on Myc, but we also found that among the Myc target genes most highly induced in the human B-cell system are those involved in mitochondrial biogenesis. Furthermore, we found that Myc directly regulates TFAM, which encodes a key factor involved in mitochondrial transcription and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replication. These observations support a pivotal role for Myc in regulating mitochondrial biogenesis.
|
|
|---|
Primary hepatocyte preparation and adenoviral infection. Primary murine hepatocytes were prepared and cultured on collagen-coated 35-mm plates as described for rat hepatocytes (32). One day after plating of 3 x 105 cells per plate, hepatocytes from floxed Myc mice were treated with either adenoviruses expressing Cre recombinase (a gift from F. Bunz and B. Vogelstein, Johns Hopkins University) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) or GFP alone (a gift from D. Johns, Johns Hopkins University) at approximately 5 x 108 PFU per plate (10, 42).
Microarray gene expression analysis. P493-6 cells were treated in presence of 1 µM estradiol plus 0.1 µg/ml tetracycline (endogenous MYC) or 0.1 µg/ml tetracycline (low MYC) or in the absence of both (high ectopic MYC) for 72 h, and RNA was collected with an RNeasy minikit (QIAGEN). Hybridization on Affymetrix U133 Plus 2.0 chip and data analysis were performed in the Johns Hopkins Medical Institute microarray facility. The image data were processed with the statistical procedure Robust Multiarray Analysis to obtain gene expression signals (22), and statistically significant changes in gene expression was obtained with an empirical Bayes method using gamma-gamma or log normal-normal modeling (35).
PCR. RNA isolated from tetracycline-treated or untreated P493-6 cells was first reverse transcribed to cDNA with TaqMan reverse transcription reagents (Applied Biosystems). Random hexamer primers were used for reverse transcription. Real-time PCR was performed with Sybr Green PCR core reagents (Applied Biosystems). Target gene primer pairs are listed in Table S1 in the supplemental material. The predeveloped TaqMan assay reagents (Applied Biosystems) 18S rRNA control kit was used in a real-time PCR procedure to detect 18S rRNA as an internal template control. cDNA transcribed with known concentrations of RNA was diluted at 10-fold series to generate a standard curve according to the cycle of threshold value obtained from real-time PCR. The quantity of cDNA of the tested gene was determined from the standard curve and normalized to the quantity of 18S rRNA.
Expression of human and mouse TFAM/Tfam and mouse Myc was measured with total RNA by using TaqMan one-step reverse transcription-PCR master mix reagents (Applied Biosystems). The primer and probe sequences are as follows: for human TFAM, 5'-AAGATTCCAAGAAGCTAAGGGTGA (forward), 5'-CAGAGTCAGACAGATTTTTCCAGTTT-3' (reverse), and 6-carboxyfluorescein (FAM)-5'-TCACCGCAGGAAAAGCTGAAGACTGTAAAG-3'-6-carboxymethylrhodamine (TAMRA) (probe); for mouse Tfam, 5'-GATGGCGCTGTTCCGG-3' (forward), 5'-TGGATAGCTACCCATGCTGGA-3' (reverse), and FAM-5'-TCCCCTCGTCTATCAGTCTTGTCTGTATTC-3'-TAMRA (probe); and for mouse Myc, 5'-AGCCCCTAGTGCTGCATGA-3' (forward), 5'-TCCACAGACACCACATCAATTTC-3' (reverse), and FAM-5'-CAGCAGCGACTCTGAAGAAGAGCAAGAAGA-3'-TAMRA (probe). Rat Tfam was measured with Sybr Green core reagent from cDNA with primers 5'-AAAAATCTGTCTCATGATGAAAAGCAG-3' (forward) and 3'-CTTCATTTCATTGTCATAACGAATTCTAT-3' (reverse).
PCR conditions to assay floxed Myc versus the deletion allele and the primer sequences were as described previously (9, 10).
ChIP. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) was performed as described previously (4). Briefly, P493-6 cells were grown at 4 x 105 cells/ml either with or without 0.1 µg/ml tetracycline for 72 h. Human 2091 cells were serum starved and stimulated as described above. ChIP was performed with rabbit polyclonal anti-c-Myc sc-764X antibody (Santa Cruz Biotechnology). The human genomic sequence was downloaded from genome.ucsc.edu, and the E box was searched from 3 kb upstream of exon 1 to 7 kb downstream with the nucleic acids motif feature of OMIGA software. PCR primers are listed in Table S2 in the supplemental material. Real-time PCR was performed with Sybr Green PCR core reagents (Applied Biosystems). Absolute quantification was performed as described previously (47). The amount of DNA in the ChIP product was normalized to the amount of DNA in the total input chromatin.
Immunoblotting.
c-Myc was detected with monoclonal antibody 9E10.
-Tubulin (Ab-1) monoclonal mouse immunoglobulin G (Oncogene) was used to detect tubulin as a loading control.
Flow cytometric analysis. Cells were incubated at 37°C with 5% CO2 for 30 min in the presence of 10 nM (P493-6 cells) or 100 nM (Rat1 fibroblasts) nonyl acridine orange (NAO) (Molecular Probes) and filtered and analyzed immediately with a Becton Dickinson FACScan flow cytometer.
Confocal and immunofluorescence microscopy. P493-6 cells were incubated with MitoTracker Red CMX Ros (M7512; Molecular Probes) at 250 nM or 150 nM in presence of 10% or 0.25% fetal bovine serum for 15 min. Cells were then resuspended in fresh warm medium and cytospun onto slides. The slides were fixed, rinsed, and mounted. Images were collected with an UltraView (Perkin-Elmer) confocal microscope, and intensity measurements were performed with the signal intensity segmentation feature of IP lab software. Primary hepatocytes were stained with either MitoTracker Red (100 nM) or NAO (10 mM) as described previously (14, 19). Fluorescence microscopy was performed on living cells with an inverted Zeiss Axiovert 200 fluorescence microscope equipped with a digital camera.
Mitochondrial DNA copy measurement. DNA was collected from whole cell lysates. Real-time PCR was performed for cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COX1), peroxisome proliferative activated receptor gamma coactivator-related 1 (PPRC1), and cytokine-like protein C17. For primer sequences see Table S3 in the supplemental material. Absolute COX1 DNA copies were normalized to nuclear genes, PPRC1 or C17.
Measurement of total cellular oxygen consumption. P493-6 cells were treated either with or without tetracycline as described above, and then cells were plated at 5 x 105 in the fluorescent dye-embedded 96-well microplate of the BD oxygen biosensor system (BD Biosciences). Cells were incubated for 4 h, and then results were read with a fluorescent microplate reader (Wallac Victor3V 1420 Multilabel Counter; Perkin-Elmer). The data were normalized according to the manufacturer's two-step normalization protocol (technical bulletin no. 448; BD Bioscience) and represented as normalized relative fluorescent units.
Electron microscopy. Electron microscopy was performed in the microscopy core facility as described previously (47), and sections were viewed with a Philips CM 120 transmission electron microscope. Micrographs were obtained for 10 individual cells for each cell type. Micrographs were inspected, and mitochondrial morphology was determined.
|
|
|---|
![]() View larger version (44K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 1. c-Myc increases mitochondrial mass and activity under high (10%; left panels)- or low (0.25%; right panels)-serum conditions. P493-6 cells were plated in presence (+tet, low Myc) or absence (-tet, high Myc) of tetracycline for 72 h in either high or low serum. The cells were collected as described in Materials and Methods. (A) c-Myc levels were determined by immunoblotting. Tubulin served as a loading control. (B) Fluorescence intensity of NAO staining (x axis) in cells as determined by flow cytometry. The y axis represents cell numbers. (C) Representative confocal micrographs of MitoTracker Red-stained cells are shown in the upper panels. The lower panels show the signal intensity distribution of MitoTracker Red staining as a measure of mitochondrial activity and content, using signal segmentation of the IP lab software. The median of relative signal intensity is also indicated. Exposure times for the confocal micrographs were kept constant between high-Myc and low-Myc conditions but were slightly different for high- versus low-serum conditions.
|
![]() View larger version (25K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 2. c-Myc induction increases mitochondrial DNA copies and cellular oxygen consumption. P493-6 cells were treated as described in the legend to Fig. 1 under high-serum conditions, and then cells were collected as described in Materials and Methods. (A) Quantitative real-time PCR was performed on the mitochondrial gene COX1, and the nuclear genes PPRC1 and C17 were used as internal controls. The fold changes were calculated relative to the DNA level in tetracycline-treated (+tet, low Myc) cells. Shown are averages from three independent experiments ± standard errors of the means. (B) Total cellular oxygen consumption, shown as averages from two independent experiments ± standard deviations. NRFU, normalized relative fluorescent units.
|
![]() View larger version (29K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 3. Mitochondrial mass is decreased in Myc null fibroblasts. (A and B) Log-phase-growing myc+/+, myc/, and myc/ + Myc cells were stained with NAO. (A) The flow cytometric histogram shows the fluorescence intensity corresponding to mitochondrial mass. Myc+/+ cells have one signal peak at high fluorescence intensity, while myc/ and myc/ + Myc cells have two peaks. (B) The three small dot plots show the percentage of cells gated for higher fluorescence intensity. (C) Growth rates of myc+/+, myc/, and myc/ + Myc fibroblasts.
|
![]() View larger version (72K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 4. Ultrastructural analysis of mitochondria in rat fibroblasts. Left, quantitation of the types of cells found in fibroblasts. A total of 10 individual cells each from log-phase-growing myc+/+, myc/, and myc/ + Myc cells were classified and are shown as the percentage displaying N, I, or A morphology. Right, electron micrographs of three major morphological categories: N, abundant, normal mitochondrial sections; I, fewer, normal mitochondrial sections; A, dramatic loss of mitochondrial sections with increased lysosome-like organelles. The lower panels are higher magnifications of the upper panels.
|
![]() View larger version (44K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 5. Acute deletion of floxed Myc in isolated murine hepatocytes is associated with decreased stainable mitochondria. (A) Fluorescence and phase-contrast micrographs of cultured primary hepatocytes from homozygous mice with floxed Myc before (day 0) and 2 or 3 days after control (Cont) or Cre recombinase adenoviral infection. GFP fluorescence micrographs of adenovirally infected hepatocytes (top panels) at days 2 and 3 are shown. The same cells were stained with either MitoTracker Red (shown for day 2) or nonyl acridine orange (shown for day 3). Fluorescence micrographs of controls or Cre recombinase-treated cells were obtained with identical exposure times for each different fluorochrome (GFP, NAO, or MitoTracker Red). (B) Ethidium-stained agarose gel showing PCR-amplified (35 cycles) genomic DNA from untreated hepatocytes at day 0 or from control or Cre recombinase-treated hepatocytes at day 2. PCR primers used were specific for the undeleted (W) or deleted (D) floxed Myc alleles. W amplicon size, 500 bp; D amplicon size, 700 bp. Molecular markers are shown in the far left lane. UTR, untranslated region.
|
Using oligonucleotide microarray analysis in four independent biological experiments, we found 2,679 genes (4,314 probe sets) that are responsive to ectopic Myc among a total of about 10,000 genes that are expressed in the P493-6 cells. About half (1,578) of the genes are induced, while the other half (1,101) are repressed. Among the 1,578 genes that are induced, expression analysis systematic explorer (EASE) gene ontology analysis revealed that 198 genes involved in the mitochondrion are overrepresented statistically out of 1,141 up-regulated genes that are able to be annotated (EASE score, 1.21E45) (see Table S4 in the supplemental material) (21). Among the 1,101 down-regulated genes, 9 of them were annotated as associated with mitochondrial function. The names of the genes and fold changes are as follows: ALDH2, 2.47; ALDH6A1, 2.35; BCL2, 3.86; BNIP3L, 2.26; BCL2L1, 2.65; CPT1B, 2.00; COX4I2, 3.12; PSEN1, 1.93; and UCP2, 3.92. The up-regulated genes are grouped in relation to their participation in mitochondrial membrane, mitochondrial matrix, mitochondrial ribosomes, carboxylic acid metabolism, biosynthesis, electron transporter activity, oxidative phosphorylation, and mtDNA replication. Among these, the HSP60, cytochrome c (7, 20), sideroflexin 1, acetyl-coenzyme A acetyltransferase 1, isocitrate dehydrogenase (37), HSP10, and prohibitin (31, 37) genes have been reported to be induced by c-Myc. Cytochrome c, HSP60, PHB, PRDX3, and mSHMT have been shown to be bound by Myc by ChIP assays (15, 31, 33, 36, 47). To validate our microarray analysis, we selected 10 genes that are up-regulated and involved in mitochondrial DNA replication, oxidative phosphorylation, electron transport, carboxylic acid metabolism, or ATP synthesis to determine their expression by real-time PCR (see Table S5 in the supplemental material). The changes detected by microarray analysis highly correlate with the real-time PCR results.
We also examined the response of these genes to endogenous MYC via EBNA2-ER activation and found that mitochondrial genes are also robustly activated by endogenous MYC, as they are by ectopic MYC. In fact, 88% (175 of 198 annotated genes) of mitochondrion-related genes activated by ectopic MYC were also induced by endogenous MYC in the P493-6 system, and mitochondrion-related genes are overrepresented among genes responsive to endogenous MYC as determined by EASE analysis (data not shown). Since both endogenous and ectopic Myc could induce many mitochondrion-related genes, this analysis supports a major physiological role for Myc in mitochondrial biogenesis. While mitochondrion-related genes are overrepresented, other overrepresented groups of genes induced by Myc are also discernible through EASE analysis, including genes involved in metabolism, cell cycle regulation, and ribosome biogenesis (21).
Myc binds to TFAM. Having observed that mitochondrion-related genes are overrepresented among Myc-responsive genes, we sought to determine whether Myc directly binds and regulates genes involved in mitochondrial function and biogenesis. The current Myc target gene database (www.myccancergene.org), with about 1,700 entries, contains 23 genes involved in mitochondrial function that are bound by Myc as determined by ChIP (Table 1). Ten of these are up-regulated in P493-6 cells as observed by microarray gene expression analysis (Table 1). In addition, global genomic mapping in Drosophila revealed that dMyc binds to six genes contributing to mitochondrial biogenesis, structure, and function (38). Among these, the TFAM and Tim10 human orthologs are also up-regulated by Myc in the P493-6 system, although their regulation by Myc in mammalian cells has not been studied.
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 1. Genes determined by ChIP to be Myc targets (www.myccancergene.org) and genes up-regulated by Myc in P493-6 cells as determined by microarray analysis
|
To further validate the role of Myc in the regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis, we sought to determine whether TFAM is a direct target of Myc in the P493-6 system. Using scanning chromatin immunoprecipitation assays and P493-6 cells, we found that Myc binds to TFAM at about 900 bp upstream of the transcription start site in the region of amplicons C and D (Fig. 6A). Amplicon C contains a 5'-CACGTT-3' sequence that could be bound by Myc (3). Amplicon D has a palindromic sequence, 5'-CGCGCG-3', that contains Myc/Max 5'-GCG-3' half sites (3) and GC-rich regions with that are associated with dMyc in Drosophila cells (38). Neither amplicon contains phylogenetically conserved E boxes that are found in promoter and intron 1 regions (Fig. 6A). Both our gene expression and ChIP experiments support the direct regulation of TFAM by Myc.
![]() View larger version (29K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 6. c-Myc binds to TFAM in situ. (A) Human genomic sequence starting from 3 kb upstream of exon 1 to 7 kb downstream. Exons are represented by black boxes. The E boxes are indicated with vertical bars, and the E box in amplicon C is illustrated. Horizontal bars labeled A to G indicate the regions amplified for scanning ChIP analysis. P493-6 cells were plated in absence (Tet) or presence (+Tet) of tetracycline as described in Materials and Methods, and then ChIP was performed with anti-c-Myc antibody (Myc Tet or Myc +Tet). No-antibody control experiments (NAb Tet or NAb +Tet) were performed at same time. Tet corresponds to a high-Myc state, whereas +Tet represents a low-Myc state. Quantitative PCRs were performed. Shown are averages of triplicates. (B) Top, time-dependent expression of TFAM following serum stimulation of human 2091 primary fibroblasts. TFAM expression is shown as normalized expression relative to 18S rRNA. Mean values (with standard deviations of less than 5% of the mean) from triplicate real-time PCRs are shown. Bottom, chromatin immunoprecipitation assays showing time-dependent binding of Myc to TFAM following serum stimulation of human 2091 primary fibroblasts. Binding to amplicons B, C, and D, which are defined in panel A, is shown as a percentage of total input DNA.
|
We also sought to determine the dependence of Tfam expression on endogenous Myc, by measuring the expression of Tfam in rat fibroblasts rendered Myc null by homologous recombination and in primary murine hepatocytes acutely deprived of Myc through conditional floxed alleles. Chronic deprivation of Myc in rat cells resulted in decreased Tfam expression: 1.0-fold for myc+/+, 0.7-fold for myc/, and 0.93-fold for myc/ + Myc. In contrast, acute deprivation of Myc in hepatocytes with more than a 10-fold reduction of Myc expression was not associated with a significant decrease in Tfam expression 2 days after Cre recombinase adenoviral infection. Although the Tfam mRNA half-life is unknown, our results suggest that Tfam expression in primary hepatocytes could be dependent on other factors that are codominant with Myc.
|
|
|---|
The use of the P493-6 system allowed us to identify a set of Myc-responsive genes that are involved in mitochondrial biogenesis. In fact, among the Myc-responsive genes, the group annotated as being related to mitochondrial structure and function ranks among the highest that are overrepresented by EASE analysis. Particularly intriguing is that Tfam, a key mitochondrial transcriptional regulator and mtDNA replication factor, is Myc responsive and, as we demonstrated in this report, a direct target of Myc in the P493-6 and primary human fibroblast systems. Tfam overexpression appears sufficient to induce mitochondrial transcription but not mtDNA replication in vitro (29). In transgenic mice, however, overexpression of human TFAM is sufficient to increase mtDNA copy number (12). On the other hand, reduction of TFAM by RNA interference in HeLa cells or gene deletion in the mouse reduces mtDNA copy number, indicating that Tfam is necessary for mtDNA replication and mitochondrial biogenesis (12, 24). It is notable that our in silico work to identify transcription factors that cooperate with Myc reveals nuclear respiratory factor NRF1 as one among six predicted Myc collaborators in cis-regulatory modules (13). NRF1 is a major transcriptional regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis and recently has been thought to collaborate with E2F, although TFAM was found bound by NRF1 but not E2F (5, 25). In contrast, our studies reveal that Myc is able to directly bind TFAM, suggesting that Myc has a distinct nonoverlapping function with E2F in inducing mitochondrion-related genes. Although Myc binds the TFAM promoter region, this area lacks canonical E boxes and resembles Myc binding regions of the glycolytic TPI and GAPD genes that lack canonical Myc binding sites (26). It is notable that while chronic deletion of Myc in rat fibroblasts resulted in decreased Tfam expression, the acute deletion of Myc from primary mouse hepatocytes was not associated with diminished Tfam expression. With the caveat that the half-life of the Tfam mRNA is not known, these observations suggest that the dependence of Tfam expression on endogenous Myc could be tissue type dependent or that endogenous Myc could contribute to Tfam expression but not be required. The decrease in hepatocyte mitochondrial mass following acute removal of Myc is hence likely to depend on other Myc target genes involved in mitochondrial biogenesis. Notwithstanding the uncertainty surrounding the sufficiency and necessity of Myc in regulating Tfam, together with previous identification of direct Myc target genes involved in mitochondrial function or biogenesis, our current findings firmly support Myc's role in mitochondrial biogenesis.
Our functional studies verify that upon Myc induction, P493-6 cells increase their consumption of oxygen, mitochondrial mass and function, and mtDNA content. Removal of Myc from the Rat1 fibroblasts, conversely, resulted in cells with diminished numbers of normal mitochondrial sections and evidence of dysmorphic, presumably incompletely assembled mitochondria. Although we do not understand the bimodal distribution of Myc null cells according to nonylacridine orange staining, we speculate that the proliferative compartment of these cells, compared with the majority of cells that are resting, may attain a higher mitochondrial mass independent of Myc. Reconstitution of Myc in the Myc null cells, however, not only partially rescues mitochondrial mass in these knockout cells but also increases the number of morphologically normal mitochondrial sections as determined by electron microscopy. These observations suggest that Myc increases the propensity of these cells to generate functional mitochondria. In addition, acute deletion of floxed murine Myc by Cre recombinase resulted in diminished mitochondrial mass in primary hepatocytes. In summary, our findings demonstrate a role for Myc in regulating genes involved in mitochondrial structure and function and in mitochondrial biogenesis and further establish that Myc is a master switch that couples cellular metabolic needs to cell growth and proliferation.
This work was supported by NIH/NCI grants CA52497, CA57341, and CA09159 and the Training Program in Human Genetics and Molecular Biology. J. Kim is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute predoctoral fellow. C. Dang is the Johns Hopkins Family Professor in Oncology Research.
Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://mcb.asm.org/. ![]()
Present address: 200 Cambridge Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140. ![]()
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»