Interaction between transactivation domain of p53 and middle part of TBP-like protein (TLP) is involved in TLP-stimulated and p53-activated transcription from the p21 upstream promoter

TBP-like Protein (TLP) Disrupts the p53-MDM2 Interaction and Induces Long-lasting p53 Activation

Stress-induced activation of p53 is an essential cellular response to prevent aberrant cell proliferation and cancer development. The ubiquitin ligase MDM2 promotes p53 degradation and limits the duration of p53 activation. It remains unclear, however, how p53 persistently escapes MDM2-mediated negative control for making appropriate cell fate decisions. Here we report that TBP-like protein (TLP), a member of the TBP family, is a new regulatory factor for the p53-MDM2 interplay and thus for p53 activation. We found that TLP acts to stabilize p53 protein to ensure long-lasting p53 activation, leading to potentiation of p53-induced apoptosis and senescence after genotoxic stress. Mechanistically, TLP interferes with MDM2 binding and ubiquitination of p53. Moreover, single cell imaging analysis shows that TLP depletion accelerates MDM2-mediated nuclear export of p53. We further show that a cervical cancer-derived TLP mutant has less p53 binding ability and lacks a proliferation-repressive function. Our findings uncover a role of TLP as a competitive MDM2 blocker, proposing a novel mechanism by which p53 escapes the p53-MDM2 negative feedback loop to modulate cell fate decisions.

TBP-like protein (TLP) represses myogenesis via inhibition of the myogenin promoter

TBP-like protein (TLP) is one of the metazoan-restricted transcription factors participating in development and differentiation, though the molecular mechanism by which TLP regulates these processes remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the relationship between TLP and myogenesis of mouse C2C12 myoblasts. We found that TLP gene expression decreases during myogenic differentiation. Overexpression and knockdown of TLP revealed that the levels of muscle-specific myosin heavy chain and the myogenic transcription factor myogenin are downregulated by TLP. TLP inhibits the progression of morphological change from myoblasts to myotubes, thereby suppressing myogenesis. We further show that TLP represses the promoter activity of myogenin. The proximal AT-rich sequence of the myogenin promoter is responsible for TLP-mediated transcriptional repression. The results of this study suggest that TLP inhibits myogenesis through downregulation of the myogenin gene.

Nucleosome distortion as a possible mechanism of transcription activation domain function

After more than three decades since the discovery of transcription activation domains (ADs) in gene-specific activators, the mechanism of their function remains enigmatic. The widely accepted model of direct recruitment by ADs of co-activators and basal transcriptional machinery components, however, is not always compatible with the short size yet very high degree of sequence randomness and intrinsic structural disorder of natural and synthetic ADs. In this review, we formulate the basis for an alternative and complementary model, whereby sequence randomness and intrinsic structural disorder of ADs are necessary for transient distorting interactions with promoter nucleosomes, triggering promoter nucleosome translocation and subsequently gene activation.

TBP-like protein (TLP) interferes with Taspase1-mediated processing of TFIIA and represses TATA box gene expression

TBP-TFIIA interaction is involved in the potentiation of TATA box-driven promoters. TFIIA activates transcription through stabilization of TATA box-bound TBP. The precursor of TFIIA is subjected to Taspase1-directed processing to generate α and β subunits. Although this processing has been assumed to be required for the promoter activation function of TFIIA, little is known about how the processing is regulated. In this study, we found that TBP-like protein (TLP), which has the highest affinity to TFIIA among known proteins, affects Taspase1-driven processing of TFIIA. TLP interfered with TFIIA processing in vivo and in vitro, and direct binding of TLP to TFIIA was essential for inhibition of the processing. We also showed that TATA box promoters are specifically potentiated by processed TFIIA. Processed TFIIA, but not unprocessed TFIIA, associated with the TATA box. In a TLP-knocked-down condition, not only the amounts of TATA box-bound TFIIA but also those of chromatin-bound TBP were significantly increased, resulting in the stimulation of TATA box-mediated gene expression. Consequently, we suggest that TLP works as a negative regulator of the TFIIA processing and represses TFIIA-governed and TATA-dependent gene expression through preventing TFIIA maturation.

Activity of the upstream TATA-less promoter of the p21(Waf1/Cip1) gene depends on transcription factor IIA (TFIIA) in addition to TFIIA-reactive TBP-like protein

TATA-binding protein-like protein (TLP) binds to transcription factor IIA (TFIIA) with high affinity, although the significance of this binding is poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the role of TFIIA in transcriptional regulation of the p21^Waf1/Cip1 (p21) gene. It has been shown that TLP is indispensable for p53-activated transcription from an upstream TATA-less promoter of the p21 gene. We found that mutant TLPs having decreased TFIIA-binding ability exhibited weakened transcriptional activation function for the upstream promoter. Activity of the upstream promoter was enhanced considerably by an increased amount of TFIIA in a p53-dependent manner, whereas activity of the TATA-containing downstream promoter was enhanced only slightly. TFIIA potentiated the upstream promoter additively with TLP. Although TFIIA is recruited to both promoters, activity of the upstream promoter was much more dependent on TFIIA. Recruitment of TFIIA and TLP to the upstream promoter was augmented in etoposide-treated cells, in which the amount of TFIIA–TLP complex is increased, and TFIIA-reactive TLP was required for the recruitment of both factors. It was confirmed that etoposide-stimulated transcription depends on TLP. We also found that TFIIA-reactive TLP acts to decrease cell growth rate, which can be explained by interaction of the p21 promoter with the transcription factors that we examined. The results of the present study suggest that the upstream TATA-less promoter of p21 needs TFIIA and TFIIA-reactive TLP for p53-dependent transcriptional enhancement.