Molecular and Cellular Biology, December 2005, p. 10205-10219, Vol. 25, No. 23
0270-7306/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/MCB.25.23.10205-10219.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Atsushi Iwama,2,
Daniel G. Tenen,2
Schickwann Tsai,3 and
Dong-Er Zhang1*
Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037 ,1 Harvard Institutes of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02115,2 Division of Hematology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah 841323
Received 13 November 2004/ Returned for modification 15 December 2004/ Accepted 18 July 2005
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B, has an important
role in hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis
(45). Its involvement in
the development of blood cells is exemplified by its regulation of
various myeloid and lymphoid promoters and enhancers
(26). Its crucial
importance was recognized in AML1/ mice,
which display no definitive hematopoiesis
(35,
51). In addition, AML1 is
commonly found in chromosomal translocations in both myeloid and
lymphoid leukemias (40).
Furthermore, AML1 was shown to regulate the cell cycle by shortening
the G1/S phase in hematopoietic cells through the binding
and induction of cyclin D promoters
(4,
46). Subsequently, this
function of AML1 was shown to require its C-terminal transactivation
domains (3). In addition,
AML1 is known to be involved in the differentiation of hematopoietic
cells (48) and in
promoting senescence in a p53-dependent fashion in primary mouse
fibroblasts (54). Thus,
AML1 seems to have a dual role in promoting cell cycle progression and
differentiation, which could be dependent on the presence of different
factors that interact with it during each stage of the development of a
cell. The regulation of the cell cycle is controlled by a combination of cyclins, cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks), and Cdk inhibitors, which together with the tumor suppressor retinoblastoma (Rb) are involved in the tight control of the cell cycle machinery. Cyclin D proteins function as holo-enzymes when complexed with Cdk4 and Cdk6, which promote the phosphorylation of Rb. The hypophosphorylated Rb proteins (Rb, p107, and p130) are known to inhibit the function of the E2F proteins, which promote the transcription of factors essential for DNA synthesis (41). Thus, phosphorylation by the cyclin D-Cdk complexes relieves inhibition by Rb, promoting the entry of cells into S phase. More-recent observations have implicated the cyclin D proteins as being not only cell cycle regulators but also transcription regulators. This is exemplified by the association of cyclin D proteins with the transcription factor DMP1 (13), which inhibits transactivation by DMP1 (17).
Cyclin D proteins have also been characterized as oncogenes (1) due to observations of amplification (19) and overexpression in a variety of tumors (7, 15, 28) or by in vitro overexpression studies (5, 9). Furthermore, cyclin D3 is specifically associated with t(6;14) in patients with B-cell malignancies (44). Thus, cyclin D proteins are involved in the tumorigenesis of various human malignancies.
AML1 is known to regulate promoters of various
myeloid genes, such as macrophage colony-stimulating factor
(CSF) receptor, granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF), interleukin 3,
neutrophil elastase, and myeloperoxidase and promoters/enhancers of
lymphoid genes, such as the B-lymphoid kinase (BLK) promoter and
enhancers of T-cell receptor
and immunoglobulin
(Ig
) (reviewed in references
2,
31, and
49). Our previous studies
identified a region of AML1 between amino acids (aa) 268 and 289 that
plays a critical role in regulating AML1 activity
(36). To understand the
molecular mechanism of AML1 function in activating gene expression, we
performed yeast two-hybrid studies to identify proteins that associate
with a region encompassing aa 213 to 289 of AML1 using a cDNA library
prepared from the hematopoietic cell line EML
(50). We determined that
the cell cycle regulator cyclin D3 bound directly to AML1. We further
showed that all three cyclin D proteins associated with AML1 and that
the Runt homology domain of AML1 is also involved in the interaction
with cyclin D. Interestingly, cyclin D3 worked as a negative regulator
of AML1 in transactivation studies; cyclin D3 competed with core
binding factor ß (CBFß) for binding to AML1
and diminished AML1 affinity for DNA. AML1 is known to directly
regulate cyclin D gene expression
(4,
46). These observations
suggest a mechanism of feedback regulation of AML1 transactivation by
the G1 cyclin-cyclin D proteins themselves and suggest a
timely balanced regulation of cell division and differentiation by AML1
and cyclin D.
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were described previously
(25, 36, 56). The pCMV-RL and pNull-RL constructs express the Renilla luciferase protein under the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter and no promoter, respectively (Promega). pcDNA6-HA-AML1 was made by cloning the NotI-ApaI fragment from pBS-HA-AML1-ETO and the ApaI-XbaI fragment from pCMV5-AML1 into NotI-XbaI-digested pcDNA6/V5-HisB (Clontech), which expresses full-length AML1. Hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged mutant AML1 expression construct pcDNA6-HA-AML1(1-289) was generated by NotI-ApaI digestion of pcDNA6-HA-AML1 and ApaI-XbaI digestion
of pCMV5-AML1(1-289) and by the ligation of NotI-ApaI and ApaI-XbaI fragments into NotI-XbaI-digested pcDNA6/V5-HisB. HA-tagged
mutant AML1 expression construct pcDNA6-HA-AML1(1-213) was generated by EcoRI-HindIII digestion of pcDNA6-HA-AML1 and HindIII-BamHI digestion of pCMV5-AML1(1-213) and by the ligation of the EcoRI-HindIII and HindIII-BamHI DNA fragments into EcoRI-BamHI-digested pcDNA6/V5-HisB. AML1 mutant numbering is based on the AML1B numbering system. pCMV5-AML1(1-381), pCMV5-AML1(1-289), and pCMV5-AML1(1-213)
were kindly provided by Scott Hiebert. pRcCMV-cyclin D3-HA, pRcCMV-cyclin D2-HA, and pRcCMV-cyclin D1-HA were kindly provided by
Mark Ewen, and pRSV-cyclin D3 was provided by Charles Sherr. The glutathione S-transferase (GST)-AML1 fusion
protein expression constructs were generated by PCR of various AML1 fragments and subcloning them into either pEBG
(33) for mammalian expression or pGEX-2T GST-expressing vectors (Amersham-Pharmacia) for
bacterial expression. pEBG-Runt and pEBG-AML1(315-395) were made by PCR using the primer sets 5'
CGCGGATCCGGCGAGCTGGTGC-3' and CCGATGCGGCCGCgaattcTGCCGATGTCTTCGAG and 5'-CGGGATCCCCTGCAGAACTTTCCAGT-3' and
CCGATGCGGCCGCgaattcTTACGGGCCTCCCTGCGCT,
respectively, digested with BamHI and NotI, and cloned into
pEBG-BamHI/NotI. pEBG-213-395 was constructed with the primer set
5'
CGCAGATCTCAGACCAAGCCCGGGAG and the same 3' oligonucleotide used for pEBG-315-395, cut with
BglII-NotI, and cloned into pEBG-BamHI-NotI. pGEX-Runt was made with
the primer set 5' CGCGGATCCGGCGAGCTGGTGC and
CCGATGCGGCCGCgaattcTGCCGATGTCTTCGAG and cloned into pGEX-2T-BamHI/EcoRI. pGEX-AML1(88-381) was constructed
by cutting pGEX-2T-Runt with HindIII and EcoRI and ligating the
HindIII-EcoRI fragment from pCMV5-AML1(1-381) into
pGEX-Runt-HindIII/EcoRI. Boldface and underlining denote the
endonuclease restriction sites present in the primers.
p3XFlag-CBFß was constructed by PCR using the following primers
for the PCR:
5'-GACAAGCTTCCGCGCGTCGTGCCCGAC-3' and
5'-GGGTCTAGACTAGGGTCTTGTTGTCTTCTTGCCAGTTACTGCC-3'.
Following digestion with HindIII and XbaI, the PCR fragment was ligated
into the HindIII and XbaI sites of p3XFlagCMV (Sigma).
Antibodies
used were mouse anti-HA (Babco), mouse anti-Flag (Sigma), rabbit
anti-GST (Molecular Probes), rabbit anti-cyclin D3, rabbit
anti-C/EBP
, rabbit anti-cyclin D1, rabbit
anti-PU.1 (Santa Cruz), rabbit IgG total, mouse anti-FLAG
M2-horseradish peroxidase (HRP), mouse anti-HA-HRP (Sigma), and rabbit
anti-AML1 (active motif) or rabbit anti-AML1, kindly provided by Paul
Erickson. Secondary antibodies for Western detection were donkey
anti-rabbit IgG HRP linked (Amersham Biosciences) and sheep anti-mouse
IgG HRP linked (Amersham Biosciences). Trichostatin A (TSA) was
purchased from Sigma.
The monkey kidney cell line CV-1 and the human fetal kidney cell line 293T were cultured in high-glucose Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (Invitrogen) with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) (Sigma), 2 mM L-glutamine, and 1% Pen-Strep (Invitrogen). Human hematopoietic K562 and Jurkat cells and the murine myeloid progenitor line 416B were cultured in RPMI 1640 (Invitrogen) with 10% FBS, 2 mM L-glutamine, and 1% Pen-Strep.
GST pull-down assays. GST fusion proteins, pGEX-AML1(88-381), pGEX-Rb(379-970), pGEX-Runt, pGEX-CBFß, and pGEX were made as described previously using Escherichia coli BL21 (36). The amount of GST fusion protein unbound or bound to the glutathione agarose beads (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech AB) was analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Coomassie blue staining using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a standard. Cyclin D3 was in vitro translated from pRcCMV-cyclin D3-HA with the reticulocyte in vitro transcription-translation system as described by the manufacturer (Promega), and its quantity was determined by SDS-PAGE-radiography or overexpressed in 293T cells. HA-AML1 was overexpressed in 293T cells. The binding was performed at 4°C with 2 µg of GST, GST-AML1(88-381), or GST-Rb and 2 µg of cyclin D3 in 300 µl binding buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, 140 mM NaCl, 0.5% NP-40, 1 mM dithiothreitol, 0.2 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride [PMSF], and 1 µg/ml of pepstatin, chymostatin, leupeptin, and BSA) or using 1 µg and 5 µg of each GST fusion protein with 200 µg of protein for 293T cells expressing cyclin D3-HA in buffer A (30 mM HEPES, pH 7.8, 60 mM KCl, 30 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 200 mM sucrose, 1 mM PMSF, and 2.5 µg/ml of leupeptin, antipain, and pepstatin). The beads were then washed four times with the binding buffer or buffer A, boiled with 20 µl Laemmli buffer, and loaded on a 12% SDS-PAGE gel. The gel was fixed for 30 min with 10% acetic acid-10% methanol-water, followed by incubation in Amplify (Amersham Biosciences) for 20 min. The gel was then dried and exposed to film overnight. In the case of cyclin D3-HA, or the cyclin D3 and HA-AML1 expressed in 293T cells, Western blot analysis was conducted with mouse anti-HA (1:1,000 dilution) and the appropriate secondary antibody. Mammalian pull-down assays were performed by transfecting into 293T cells 1 µg of pEBG, pEBG-Runt, pEBG-AML1(213-395), or pEBG-AML1(315-395) with 1 µg of pRcCMV-cyclin D3-HA, using the calcium phosphate precipitation method. The precipitate was removed 8 h after the transfection, and the cultured cells were harvested at 20 h after the transfection. Cells were washed with PBS and then lysed in 400 µl buffer A. The lysate was passed through a 25-gauge needle six times, and then 20 µl of 20% Triton X-100 was added. The protein content was measured by the Bradford assay (Bio-Rad), and 100 µg of each protein was subjected to a pull-down assay with 20 µl of glutathione agarose beads at 4°C for 2 hours. The beads were washed with a washing buffer (25 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.6, 200 mM NaCl, and 0.5% Triton X-100) three times and boiled in 20 µl of Laemmli buffer. Following SDS-PAGE, the protein was transferred to a polyvinylidene difluoride membrane (NEN) and Western blot analysis was conducted with mouse anti-HA (1:1,000 dilution) and the appropriate secondary antibody. The signal was detected by chemiluminescence (NEN). The same blot was stripped and reprobed with rabbit antiglutathione (1:1,000 dilution) and the appropriate secondary antibody. The competitive pull-down assay for the analysis of GST-CBFß-bound AML1 in the presence of increasing amounts of cyclin D3 was conducted with overexpressed HA-AML1 and cyclin D3 in 293T cells lysed into buffer A. One hundred twenty µg of HA-AML1-containing lysate was spiked with 120 µg cyclin D3 lysate up to 600 µg and compensated for with 293T cell lysate to a final concentration of 720 µg protein per tube with the 293T empty vector-transfected lysate and brought to a 500-µl final volume with buffer A. Ten µl of each resulting mix was used as the input control. The lysates were precleared with 10 µl of GST beads for 1 h. The supernatant was incubated with 1 µg of GST-CBFß protein for an hour, and 10 µl of GST-beads was added and incubated overnight at 4°C with rotation. The samples were subsequently washed four times with wash buffer and boiled in 10 µl of 2x Laemmli buffer. Following SDS-PAGE and Western blotting, the analysis was performed for HA-AML1, cyclin D3, and GST fusion proteins with mouse anti-HA, rabbit anti-cyclin D3, and rabbit anti-glutathione (1:1,000 dilution) using the appropriate secondary antibody and chemiluminescence for detection.
Immunoprecipitation.
293T cells were transfected with
various protein expression constructs as indicated in the figure
legends using Polyfect (QIAGEN). Following culture, the cells were
washed once with PBS and harvested in buffer A, as described above. One
hundred micrograms of protein lysate was precleared with either mouse
IgG or rabbit serum and 30 µl protein A-Sepharose for 45 min at
4°C. The supernatant was then incubated with either mouse
anti-HA or rabbit anti-cyclin D3 for 1 hour or overnight at
4°C. Thirty µl protein A-Sepharose was added to the
above-described mixture and incubated at 4°C for another hour.
The beads were washed three times with washing buffer and boiled in 20
µl Laemmli buffer. Proteins in the supernatant were separated
on a 12% SDS-PAGE gel. Following transfer as described above, the blots
were probed with either rabbit anti-cyclin D3, rabbit
anti-C/EBP
, mouse anti-Flag, or mouse anti-HA or with either
rabbit anti-AML1 or mouse anti-HA and appropriate secondary antibodies
and detected by chemiluminescence.
In vivo immunoprecipitation. Jurkat cells or K562 cells (4 x 107) with or without stimulation by 100 nM phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) for 3 days were lysed in 1 ml of PBS-0.5% Triton X-100 containing 1 mM PMSF, 2 mM Benzamidine, and 2.5 µg/ml of leupeptin, antipain, and pepstatin. Following sonication, the sample was centrifuged at 13,000 x g for 10 min and the supernatant collected. Protein concentration was determined by the Bradford assay (Bio-Rad) according to the manufacturer's instructions. One milligram of protein was precleared with 2 µg of rabbit IgG plus 30 µl 50% slurry of protein A-Sepharose for 1 h at 4°C. The sample was then centrifuged at 6,000 x g for 30 seconds and the supernatant collected. The beads were washed with the lysis buffer three times and boiled in 20 µl SDS sample loading buffer. Five µl of rabbit anti-AML1 (provided by P. Erickson, University of Colorado) was added to the supernatant and incubated overnight at 4°C with rotation. Then 30 µl of a 50% slurry of protein A-Sepharose was added and further incubated for 1 hour at 4°C. The beads were sedimented, washed three times with the lysis buffer, and boiled as described above. The proteins were resolved on an SDS-PAGE gel, transferred to a PVDF membrane, immunoblotted with 1:1,000-diluted anti-cyclin D3 (Santa Cruz) and then with 1:5,000 goat anti-rabbit-HRP, and developed by chemiluminescence (NEN).
Transactivation studies.
CV-1
cells were transfected by the calcium phosphate precipitation method as
described previously
(36), using 6 µg
of the reporter p(Mono)4TK81-luc and 600 ng of
pCMV-CBFß, with the addition of 30 ng of
pCMV-Renilla or 500 ng of pNull-Renilla and 100 ng of pEGFP-N3.
pCMV5-AML1 was added at 600 ng. Multiple samples of 600 ng of
pRc-CMV-cyclin D3-HA, pRc-CMV-cyclin D2-HA, or pRc-CMV-cyclin D1-HA
were included as described in the figure legends. The amount of total
DNA was adjusted to 10.5 µg with the pCMV5 vector. Following
40 h of culture, the cells were washed with PBS and collected
into 1x passive lysis buffer (Promega) and assayed for dual
luciferase activity with the Monolight 3010 apparatus(Pharmingen) as described by the manufacturer. K562 cells (2.5
x 106) in plain RPMI 1640 were transfected by
electroporation (Bio-Rad Gene Pulser II) with a total of 25 µg
of DNA at 260 V and 950 µF in 0.4-cm cuvettes (Invitrogen),
using 10 µg of reporter construct with 2 µg
pCMV-CBFß, with the addition of 30 ng of pCMV-Renilla or 500 ng
of pNull-Renilla and 100 ng of pEGFP-N3. Two µg of pCMV5-AML1
with multiple samples of 2 µg of pRc-CMV-cyclin D3-HA was added
with or without 2 µg of pCMV-C/EBP
. The transfected
cells were cultured in 5 ml of RPMI 1640 with 10% FBS for 16 to
20 h and then washed with PBS and assayed for dual luciferase
activity as described above.
Gel shift assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation.
GST fusion and in vitro transcription
and translation (Promega) of cyclin D3-HA or the empty vector were
performed as described above. The GST fusion proteins were eluted with
10 mM Tris, pH 9.5, 1 mM EDTA, and 10 mM glutathione (Sigma); dialyzed
into 10 mM Tris, pH 7.6, 0.1 mM EDTA; and concentrated to 25% of the
original volume (Amicon). The samples were brought to a final
concentration of 10 mM Tris, pH 7.6, 0.1 mM EDTA, and 37.5% glycerol.
Gel shift assays were performed with annealed double-stranded
oligonucleotides of the c-fms promoter AML1 DNA binding site as
described previously
(36). Sixty ng of
GST-Runt was incubated with 40 ng of GST-CBFß in the presence
of 1, 3, or 5 µl of cyclin D3-HA reticulocyte lysate,
compensated to a 5-µl final volume with empty vector
reticulocyte lysate, and brought to a final volume of 20 µl
containing 10 mM HEPES, pH 7.8, 30 mM KCl, 5 mM MgCl2, 25%
glycerol, 0.5 mM dithiothreitol, 0.2 mM PMSF, 50 µM EDTA, and
100 ng/µl poly(dI-dC) (Amersham). Chromatin
immunoprecipitations were performed using 2 x 107
Jurkat and K562 cells that had been cultured at 2 x
105 cells/ml overnight. The cells were fixed with 1%
formaldehyde for 30 min at 37°C in the culture media,
resuspended in 5 ml PBS-0.125 M glycine, and centrifuged for 5
min. Following a wash in PBS, they were lysed in SDS lysis buffer (0.5%
SDS, 10 mM EDTA, 50 mM Tris, pH 8.0) at 1 x 107
cells/ml. Following sonication to shear the DNA to
700 bp, 1
ml of cells was diluted with 4 ml of PBS containing 1 mM EDTA, 0.5%
Triton X-100, 1 mM PMSF, and 2 mM Benzamidine (immunoprecipitation
buffer). Fifty µl of a 50% slurry of protein G in PBS,
pretreated with 10 µg herring sperm DNA and 5 µg of BSA
for 2 h and washed, was added to 1-ml aliquots of the diluted
sample and incubated at 4°C for 2 h with rocking. The
samples were centrifuged at
6,000 x g, and the
supernatant was transferred. One µg of rabbit IgG, rabbit
anti-AML1, or rabbit anti-cyclin D3 was added to the samples and
incubated overnight at 4°C with rocking. Then 30 µl of
the protein G 50% slurry was added and the samples rocked at
4°C for 2 h. The beads were washed six times with
radioimmunoprecipitation assay buffer (25 mM Tris, pH 7.4, 150 mM NaCl,
5 mM EDTA, 1% NP-40, 0.5% sodium deoxycholate) and
then once with LiCl washing buffer (0.25 M LiCl, 1% NP-40, 1% sodium
deoxycholate, 1 mM EDTA, 10 mM Tris, pH 8.0), and once with 1x
TE (10 mM Tris, pH 8.0, 1 mM EDTA) with rotation (5 min each wash) at
room temperature. DNA elution and reversal of cross-linking were done
as described by Upstate Cell Signaling Solutions (Chicago). The
precipitated DNA was dissolved in 25 µl of water. Thirty-five
cycles of PCR were performed with 3 µl of DNA and the primers
5'-CCCCTGTTCACACTCACAGGAGAAACC-3'(MIP1F) and
5'-CCTCTTTATAGGCAGCCCTGGCGGAT-3'(MIP1R). Input sample was prepared from 20 µl of the original
cell lysis preparation, and 5% of the sample was used for the
PCR.
Analysis of then cyclin D3 effect on PU.1 expression. Electroporations of 416B cells were done at 270 V and 960 µF with a Bio-Rad Gene Pulser using 2 x 107 cells in 0.5 ml plain RPMI 1640. The cells were cultured in 25 ml of RPMI medium containing 10% FBS, 2 mM L-glutamine, and 1% Pen-Strep for 16 h. Fifteen ml of cells was harvested for RNA preparation with RNA-Bee as described by the manufacturer (Tel-Test Inc.). Five ml of cells was harvested for protein extraction in PBS-0.5% Triton X-100 containing 1 mM PMSF, 2 mM Benzamidine, and 1 mM EDTA. The Northern blot analysis was performed as previously described (38). Real-time PCR was performed with 1 µl of cDNA, which was prepared from 1 µg of an RNA sample using reverse transcription with random primers (Invitrogen), with the mouse PU.1 and GAPDH (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) primer sets being used for 40 cycles in an iCycler (Bio-Rad) with Platinum SYBR green qPCR supermix UDG (Invitrogen).
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FIG. 1. In
vitro association of AML1 with cyclin D proteins. A. Cyclin D3 protein
was produced by an in vitro transcription/translation system and used
for in vitro pull-down assays with bacterially produced GST, GST-Rb,
and GST-AML1(88-381) immobilized on glutathione-agarose beads. B. Two
hundred micrograms of protein from 293T cells transfected with
pRc-CMV-cyclin D3-HA was incubated with 1 or 5 µg of
bacterially produced GST, GST-Rb, and GST-AML1(88-381) immobilized on
glutathione-agarose beads and subjected to Western blot analysis with
anti-HA
antibody.
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FIG. 2. Cyclin
D interacts with AML1 in vivo. A. Schematic depiction of HA-tagged AML1
proteins and GST-AML1 fusion proteins used in the experiments. runt,
Runt homology domain; AD, activation domain. B. HA-tagged AML1 proteins
were expressed in the presence of cyclin D3 by cotransfection in 293T cells. One hundred micrograms of protein lysate
was subjected to immunoprecipitation (IP) and Western blotting (WB)
with the indicated antibodies. IgH, immunoglobulin heavy chain. C.
Analysis of domains of AML1 associating with cyclin D3. GST alone and
GST-AML1 fusion proteins, GST-Runt, GST-AML1(213-395), and
GST-AML1(315-395), were coexpressed with cyclin D3-HA in 293T cells and
subjected to glutathione-agarose bead pull-down assays. The blot was
sequentially probed with antibodies against the HA tag to demonstrate
the association of AML1 with cyclin D3 and probed with antibodies
against GST to demonstrate the expression of the fusion
proteins.
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We further investigated whether AML1 can associate with all three members of the cyclin D family of proteins by coimmunoprecipitation assays using protein lysates prepared from 293T cells transfected with expression constructs for AML1 and either cyclin D1, cyclin D2, or cyclin D3. As depicted in Fig. 3A, full-length AML1 associates with all cyclin D members, while a control was not able to coimmunoprecipitate AML1. This observation shows that there was no difference between these cyclin D proteins in their interaction with AML1. We thus demonstrate that the cell cycle-related cyclin D proteins associate with AML1, suggesting a possible mechanism of control for the regulation of cell cycle progression.
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FIG. 3. Cyclin
D proteins are associated with AML1 in vivo. A. 293T cells were
transfected with AML1 and cyclin D expression constructs as indicated
in the figure. Cell lysates were immunoprecipitated (IP) with anti-HA
antibodies ( -HA). The immunoblot was sequentially probed with
the anti-AML1 antibodies (top panel) and anti-HA antibodies (bottom
panel). Lane 1, AML1-positive control (10 µg of protein lysate
from 293T cells expressing AML1). B. K562 cells were treated with or
without 100 nM PMA for 3 days. Western blot analysis for endogenous
AML1 and cyclin D3 expression. C. Western blot analysis of
immunoprecipitates of AML1 from K562 and Jurkat cells for endogenous
cyclin
D3.
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Cyclin D inhibits AML1 transactivation activity. We hypothesized that the interaction between AML1 and cyclin D may have a dual role in that AML1 affects cyclin D kinase activity and cyclin D affects AML1 transactivation. We first investigated whether AML1 affects cyclin D kinase activity. 293T cells were transfected with cyclin D3 in the presence or absence of AML1. The cell lysates were immunoprecipitated for the tagged cyclin D3 and used in in vitro kinase assays with GST-Rb as the substrate (32). These experiments showed that cyclin D3 in vitro kinase activity was not perturbed in the presence of AML1 (Fig. 4A). We further examined if the expression of cyclin D3 with or without AML1 affects the endogenous phosphorylation status of Rb at Ser780, a target phosphorylation site of cyclin D/Cdk4 (21). We transfected the HCT116 colon cancer cell line with cyclin D3 or cyclin D3 and AML1 and looked at the phosphorylation status of Ser780 of Rb following serum starvation for 24 h. The results showed the enhanced Rb phosphorylation at Ser780 with cyclin D3 expression (Fig. 4B). However, AML1 did not further increase Rb phosphorylation (Fig. 4B, lane 4). Under non-serum starvation conditions (Fig. 4C), we could see a very slight induction by cyclin D3 alone that was not affected by the presence of AML1. AML1 alone was able under serum starvation conditions to increase phosphor-Rb but not significantly under normal culture conditions (Fig. 4B and C). In addition, an in vitro kinase assay for cyclin D3-associated p58PITSLRE kinase (57) with histone H1 as a substrate showed that AML1 did not disrupt this cyclin D3-associated kinase activity (data not shown). These results indicate that AML1 does not significantly interfere with cyclin D3-associated kinase activities under these assay conditions.
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FIG. 4. Effect
of AML1 on cyclin D3 kinase activity. A. 293T cells were transfected
with 1 µg of pRc-CMV-cyclin D3-HA and 0, 1, or 3 µg of
pCMV5-AML1. Two-hundred-microgram samples of protein extracts were
subjected to anti-HA immunoprecipitation. The immunoprecipitates were
used in a kinase assay with 1 µg GST-Rb and
[ -32P]ATP. Twenty-microgram samples of transfected
cell protein extracts were analyzed by Western blotting to examine the
expression of AML1 and cyclin D3. B. HCT116 cells were transfected with
1 µg of each indicated expression construct. Western blot
analysis for phosphor-Rb Ser780, total Rb, AML1, and cyclin D3
expression following 24 h of culture and serum starvation. C.
As described for panel B, but cells were cultured for 48 h
with 10%
serum.
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70% while not affecting the
basal level of promoter activity in the absence of AML1. Subsequently,
we analyzed if this inhibition occurs in the myeloid cell line K562. As
depicted in Fig. 5B,
cyclin D3 strongly inhibited AML1 transactivation in K562 by
approximately 80%. Overall, the inhibitory affect of cyclin D3 was
higher in K562 cells than in CV-1 cells.
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FIG. 5. Inhibitory
effect of cyclin D3 on AML1 transactivation. A. CV-1 cells were
transfected with 6 µg of the luciferase reporter
p(Mono)4TK81-luc, 600 ng of pCMV5-CBFß, and 30 ng of
pRL-CMV in every transfection. Six hundred ng of pCMV5-AML1 was used
with an increasing amount of pRcCMV-cyclin D3-HA from 0.6 to 2.4
µg (depicted by + to 4+). The total DNA content
was adjusted with the pRc-CMV empty vector to 10.5 µg. The
promoter activity is presented as a percentage of induction relative to
the transfection containing p(Mono)4TK81-luc, pCMV5-AML1,
and pCMV5-CBFß. Transfection efficiency was normalized
according to cotransfected pRL-CMV Renilla luciferase
activity. B. K562 cells were transfected with 10 µg of
p(Mono)4TK81-luc, 2 µg of pCMV5-CBFß, and
0.5 µg of pNull-Renilla in every transfection. Two
µg of pCMV5-AML1 was added in the absence or presence of 2 or 8 µg of
pRcCMV-cyclin D3-HA. The total DNA content was adjusted with herring
sperm DNA to 25 µg. All the other parameters were the same as
described for panel A. The averages and standard deviations were
generated from results of duplicates of two independent experiments
(four sets of data). C. Cyclin D3 inhibits AML1 activation of the
B-cell-specific promoter BLK. K562 cells were transfected with 10
µg of pBLK-luc and 2 µg of pCMV5-CBFß. Two
micrograms of AML1 with or without 4 µg of cyclin D3 expression
constructs was added. Values were calculated as described above. The
results represent the averages with standard deviations from two
independent duplicate experiments and were normalized to
Renilla luciferase expression. D. Three members of cyclin D
proteins inhibit AML1 activity. CV-1 cells were transfected as
described for panel A with the variation of the addition of
pRcCMV-cyclin D1-HA and pRcCMV-cyclin D2-HA. The transfection results
depicted are normalized to the amount of Renilla luciferase
expressed from pRL-CMV. The 100% induction is set for AML1
transactivation in the absence of cyclin D. The results shown are
average results of duplicates of two independent experiments (four sets
of results) with standard deviations. Western blot analysis for the
expression of the cyclin D family members in one of the experiments is
shown with EGFP as the loading control.
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As all cyclin D family members interact with AML1, we studied whether this inhibitory effect by cyclin D3 can also be observed with the other two cyclin D proteins. Transactivation experiments similar to those described above in the presence of different cyclin D family members were conducted. Both cyclin D3 and cyclin D1 were more potent in inhibiting AML1 transcriptional activity than the other family member(Fig. 5D). Although the cyclin D2 level of expression was lower than those of cyclin D3 and cyclin D1 (Fig. 5D), it nevertheless suggests that the individual members of cyclin D family have different potentials to inhibit AML1 function.
To examine further the biological effect of cyclin D3 on AML1 target gene expression, we expressed cyclin D3 in 416B cells and analyzed the expression of a reported AML1 target gene, PU.1 (14). Cells were transfected with either the plasmid vector or a cyclin D3 expression construct. Western blot analysis showed that the overexpressed cyclin D3 did not alter the level of endogenous AML1 significantly (Fig. 6A). The effect of cyclin D3 overexpression on PU.1 expression was first analyzed by Northern blotting (Fig. 6B). A noticeable decrease of PU.1 mRNA in the presence of overexpressed cyclin D3 was observed using 28S and 18S rRNA as loading controls. Furthermore, real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR confirmed that the level of PU.1 was reduced to 25% upon cyclin D3 expression (Fig. 6C). These data indicate that cyclin D3 negatively regulates endogenous AML1 target gene expression.
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FIG. 6. Effect
of exogenous cyclin D3 on endogenous PU.1 gene expression. 416B cells
were transfected by electroporation with 40 µg of pRc-CMV or
pRc-CMV-cyclin D3-HA and harvested for RNA and protein 16 h
posttransfection. A. Western blot analysis of the exogenously expressed
cyclin D3-HA. B. Northern blot analysis of PU.1 expression in
10 µg of total RNA, and ethidium bromide-stained gel showing
28S and 18S rRNAs as loading controls. C. Real-time PCR depicting the
level of PU.1 expressed as corrected for GAPDH expression in each
sample, with a standard deviation from results of four separate
reactions from two sets of
experiments.
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![]() View larger version (21K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 7. HDAC
activity is not required for cyclin D3 inhibition of AML1. K562 cells
were transfected with 10 µg of p(Mono)4TK81-luc, 2
µg of pCMV5-CBFß with or without 2 µg of
pCMV5-AML1, and/or 4 µg of pRcCMV-cyclin D3-HA. The cells were
cultured for 6 h, and then TSA was added at the indicated
concentrations and cultured for an additional 16 h. A.
Stimulatory effect of TSA on basal reporter activity. Depiction of the
control vector p(Mono)4TK81-luc with pCMV5-CBFß
after treatment of cells for 16 h with the indicated
concentrations of TSA. The averages and standard deviations were
generated from the results of duplicates of two independent
experiments. B. Each set of bars represents a concentration of TSA
where AML1 only was set at 100% and the level of induction in that set
was calculated according to the luciferase activity of AML1
transfection alone. The average and standard deviation were generated
from results of duplicates of two independent
experiments.
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decreases the inhibitory effect of cyclin D on AML1.
We have shown above that two regions of
AML1 are involved in the association with cyclin D3. Because the AML1
Runt homology domain associates with various factors that cooperate
with AML1 in regulating gene transcription, we inquired if such a
factor was able to reverse the inhibitory effect of cyclin D3. For this
we used the transcription factor C/EBP
, which we have
previously shown to associate and synergize with AML1
(36). The
p(Mono)4TK81-luc reporter construct contains the C/EBP DNA
binding sites 5' to the AML1 binding sites
(56). We cotransfected
the cyclin D3 expression construct in the presence and absence of
C/EBP
. Again we observed an inhibition of AML1 in the absence
of C/EBP
. In the presence of C/EBP
, the inhibitory
effect of cyclin D3 was still evident (Fig.
8A). However, the level of inhibition was diminished when we compared the
65% decrease in the absence and 21% decrease in the presence of
C/EBP
(Fig. 8B).
C/EBP
itself was not significantly affected by cyclin D3 (Fig.
8A and B). This suggests
that C/EBP
and cyclin D3 may potentially coregulate AML1
activity by competition. To address this hypothesis of competition
between AML1-associated factors in the regulation of transcription, we
analyzed the interaction of AML1 and cyclin D3 in the presence of
increasing amount of C/EBP
. Both cyclin D3 and C/EBP
were detected in an AML1 immunoprecipitate (Fig.
8C). However, increasing
amounts of C/EBP
did not displace cyclin D3 from AML1,
suggesting that C/EBP
did not block the negative effect of
cyclin D3 on AML1 transcription via competition for
binding.
![]() View larger version (18K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 8. The
presence of C/EBP partially relieves cyclin D3 inhibition on
AML1. A. K562 cells were transfected with the indicated expression
constructs as described for Fig.
5 with or without 2
µg of pCMV5-C/EBP in the presence or absence of 4
µg pRcCMV-cyclin D3-HA. The luciferase results were normalized
to the expression of Renilla luciferase. The averages and
standard deviations were generated from results from duplicates of two
independent experiments. B. One hundred percent induction was set for
AML1 or for AML1 and C/EBP in the absence of cyclin D3. The
averages and standard deviations were generated from results of
duplicates of two independent experiments. C. Cyclin D3 and
C/EBP do not compete with each other in their interaction with
AML1. 293T cells were transfected with 5 µg of pRSV-cyclin D3
and 5 µg of pcDNA6-HA-AML1 with the addition of 5 or 15
µg of pMSV-C/EBP and equilibrated to 25 µg
with the empty vector. HA-tagged AML1 protein was immunoprecipitated
(IP) with anti-HA antibody ( HA), and Western blotting (WB) was
performed with the indicated antibodies (top panels). Straight Western
blotting of 10 µg of each sample is shown (bottom
panels).
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(6).
These experiments showed that cyclin D3 is associated with chromatin on
this AML1 target in both a myeloid and a lymphoid cell line (Fig.
9D). Thus, these
experiments and those described above suggest that the inhibitory role
of cyclin D on AML1 transactivation is due to cyclin D association with
AML1 leading to the displacement of AML1-associated CBFß and
abrogating AML1 DNA binding
affinity.
![]() View larger version (29K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 9. Cyclin
D3 competes with CBFß for AML1 association and disrupts AML1
DNA binding. A. Competitive association between cyclin D3 and
CBFß with AML1. 293T cells were cotransfected with 5 µg
of pRSV-cyclin D3 and pcDNA6-HA-AML1, with the addition of 0.5
µg or 2.5 µg of p3XFlag-CBFß (left panels) or
cotransfected with 1 µg of p3XFlag-CBFß and 5
µg pcDNA6-HA-AML1 with the addition of 5 µg or 10
µg of pRSV-cyclin D3 (right panels) and equilibrated to 25
µg with the empty vector. HA-tagged AML1 protein was
immunoprecipitated (IP) with anti-HA ( HA) antibody, and Western blotting (WB) was performed
with the indicated antibodies (top panels). A straight Western blot of
10 µg of each sample is shown (bottom panels). B. Cyclin D3
disrupts Runt and Runt-CBFß DNA binding. GST-Runt and
GST-CBFß proteins were isolated from E. coli, and
cyclin D3 was in vitro translated. Sixty ng of GST-Runt was mixed with
40 ng of GST-CBFß. Reticulocyte lysates of cyclin D3-HA and/or
control pRc-CMV was used to a maximum of 5 µl in the
titrations, and the binding was performed on ice in the presence
of the c-fms promoter AML1 binding site probe. The
protein-DNA complexes were resolved on a 5% (29:1) 0.5x
Tris-borate-EDTA gel for 1 h at 15 mA at 4°C and
dried for autoradiography. Arrows indicate the shifted complex of
GST-Runt and the GST-CBFß/GST-Runt heterodimer. C.
Dose-dependent competition between cyclin D3 and CBFß for
association with AML1. 293T cells were transfected with 10 µg
of pcDNA6-HA-AML1 or 20 µg of pRSV-cyclin D3. A pull-down assay
with GST-CBFß was performed with HA-AML1 and increasing
concentrations of cyclin D3 lysate. Western blot analysis was performed
with the indicated antibodies (left panels). Straight Western blot with
15 µg of each sample before the addition of GST-CBFß
(right panels). D. Chromosome immunoprecipitation of AML1 and cyclin D3
on the MIP1 promoter. K562 and Jurkat cells were subjected to
CHIP assays with -AML1 or -cyclin D3 or rabbit IgG
and beads alone as controls. CHIP was done on 2 x
106 cells with each antibody. PCR was performed with the
primers described in Materials and Methods for the MIP1
promoter region containing an AML1 binding site. The input represents
DNA isolated from 2 x 105
cells.
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Our previous studies suggested that a region of AML1 between aa 268 and 289 might play a critical role in regulating AML1 activity (36). We therefore used the domain from aa 213 to 289 as bait in a yeast two-hybrid screen for factors that interacted with AML1. We found cyclin D3 interacting with this domain and confirmed this interaction by pull-down assays. Subsequently, we showed that this interaction was not just specific to this region but that the Runt homology domain was also able to associate with cyclin D3, defining a large region between aa 88 and 289 of AML1. We also show that the endogenous proteins associate in both lymphoid and myeloid cells.
The large region of AML1 that interacts with cyclin D suggests that cyclin D might disrupt or enhance the association between AML1 and proteins interacting with the region juxtaposed to the Runt domain or with the Runt domain itself. In addition, the complex of AML1 and cyclin D could lead to an enhanced or abrogated function of both cyclin D and/or AML1. We therefore tested two hypotheses, that AML1 may be able to regulate cyclin D3-associated kinase activity and that cyclin D3 may be able to affect AML1 transactivation ability. The first hypothesis of AML1 affecting the in vitro kinase activity of cyclin D3 proved not valid, as we were unable to see a significant difference in levels of in vitro-phosphorylated GST-Rb and histone H1 or in vivo-phosphorylated-Rb (Ser780) in cells transfected with cyclin D3 in the presence and absence of AML1. Thus, AML1 is not able to significantly enhance or disrupt cyclin D3-associated kinase activities by its interaction in these experiments.
Recent studies have shown that cyclin D
proteins act as either negative or positive
regulators of transcription in addition to having a role in
cell cycle regulation
(12,
22,
34). Herein we show that
cyclin D was able to inhibit AML1 function. This inhibitory effect was
moderately relieved by the C/EBP
transcription factor and did
not require TSA-sensitive HDAC activity, as was suggested for cyclin D1
regulation of the thyroid hormone receptor promoter
(27). In addition, we
show that cyclin D3 is associated with chromatin-containing AML1 sites
in myeloid and lymphoid cell lines. A competitive mechanism for the
negative regulation of AML1-CBFß association by cyclin D3 was
observed. However, increased CBFß expression was unable to
reverse cyclin D3 inhibition of AML1 in reporter assays (data not
shown). This is due to the predominant cytoplasmic localization of
CBFß, which requires AML1 for its nuclear translocation
(47). Nevertheless our
observations suggest a novel mechanism of AML1 regulation whereby
cyclin D displaces CBFß from AML1, abrogating AML1's DNA
binding potential to a target promoter(s), which is partly counteracted
by C/EBP
(Fig.
10A). Alternatively, due to the multiple factors that can associate with
(26) or modify
(8,
55) AML1, it is still
possible that the association between AML1 and cyclin D leads to
conformational changes of AML1 which disrupt or enhance the interaction
of AML1 with identified or unidentified coactivators and corepressors,
such as p300/CBP or sin3a, respectively.
![]() View larger version (15K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 10. Models
of the effect of cyclin D on the regulation of AML1 function. A. Cyclin
D is able to compete with CBFß for AML1 binding. The loss of
association with CBFß reduces AML1 transactivation activity
through the lowering of its ability to bind DNA that could be due to
conformational changes in the Runt domain. Alternatively,
conformational changes in AML1 could also lead to variations in
cofactors associated with carboxy-terminal domains of AML1.
C/EBP can partially rescue the negative effect of cyclin
D. B. AML1 is known to promote cell cycle progression and
differentiation in various hematopoietic cells. The positive regulation
of cyclin D proteins could thereby regulate its expression directly by
its association with AML1 during proliferative signals to prevent
overproduction of cyclin D proteins. In addition, the proposed
differentiation activity of AML1 could be counteracted by the
displacement of CBFß or, alternatively, the coactivator p300 by
cyclin D proteins, known to cooperate with AML1 during
differentiation.
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This work was supported by National Institute of Health grant CA72009 and the Scripps Cancer Center. The Stein Endowment Fund has partially supported the departmental molecular biology service laboratory for DNA sequencing and oligonucleotide synthesis.
This is paper 15857-MEM from The Scripps Research Institute.
Present
address: Biogen, Inc., 14 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA
02142. ![]()
Present
address: The Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo
108-8639, Japan. ![]()
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synergize with different regions of AML1.Mol. Cell. Biol.
18:3915-3925.
This article has been cited by other articles:
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