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Revision as of 21:01, 3 July 2012

This is a joint project of La Canada High School and University of Southern California students, mentored by Professor Remo Rohs.

A Base Pairing Variant Enhances p53 Binding to a Response Element

Introduction and Biological Role of the Tumor Suppressor p53

Figure 1: Crystal structure of a p53 DBD tetramer-DNA complex; PDB ID# 3KZ8^[1].

Figure 3: Frequency of p53 mutants associated with cancer derived from IARC TP53 database. Domain architecture; N-ter=N-terminal, DBD=DNA binding domain, Tet=Tetramerization, and C-ter=C-terminal domain. Intermediate regions are fairly disordered.

Also known as the Guardian of the Genome, the tumor suppressor p53 is central in the natural defense against human cancer. The protein is activated by stress factors that can compromise the genomic integrity of the cell, and this activation unleashes the function of p53 as transcription factor. It binds as a tetramer (Figure 1) to a large range of DNA response elements. The p53 consensus site (Figure 2) is formed by two decameric half-sites, each containing a core element (red), that are separated by a variable number of base pairs (blue).

Binding of p53 to different response elements leads to distinct biological responses, such as cell-cycle arrest, senescence, or apoptosis. These different pathways correspond, at least in part, to differences in p53-DNA binding affinity and stability, which are determined by specific protein-DNA interactions.

Mutations of p53 residues are associated with 50% of human cancers. Such mutations are predominantly located in the p53-DNA binding domain (DBD) based on an analysis of human tumors (Figure 3). Particularly, arginine residues in the p53-DNA interface were found in tumors at high frequencies.

Domain Architecture and Tetramerization

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domains

domains

Further Reading

A more general discussion of structural origins of binding specificity in protein-DNA recognition has been published along with a suggestion for a new classification of protein-DNA readout modes that goes beyond the historical description of direct and indirect readout^[2].

Acknowledgements

This Proteopedia page originates from the partnership of the Rohs Laboratory at the University of Southern California with La Canada High School. This partnership was initiated by Remo Rohs and Patty Compeau in September 2011 as Bioinformatics Institute, which is part of the Institutes of the 21st Century. Contributors to this page are USC graduate students Ana Carolina Dantas Machado, Proteopedia editor Eran Hodis, and La Canada High School students xxx. Research presented in this article has been conducted in the Shakked Lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Rohs and L. Chen Labs at USC, and the Honig Lab at Columbia University. Furthermore, technical help by Proteopedia editors Eran Hodis, Eric Martz, Jaime Prilusky, and Joel Sussman is acknowledged.

References

1. ↑ Kitayner M, Rozenberg H, Rohs R, Suad O, Rabinovich D, Honig B, Shakked Z. Diversity in DNA recognition by p53 revealed by crystal structures with Hoogsteen base pairs. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2010;17(4):423-9.
2. ↑ Rohs R, Jin X, West SM, Joshi R, Honig B, Mann RS. Origins of specificity in protein-DNA recognition. Annu Rev Biochem. 2010;79:233-69.