Showing papers on "Transcription Factor CHOP published in 1994"

CHOP (GADD153) and its oncogenic variant, TLS-CHOP, have opposing effects on the induction of G1/S arrest.

Abstract: The growth arrest and DNA damage-inducible gene CHOP (GADD153) encodes a small nuclear protein from the C/EBP family, originally isolated from adipocytes in culture. Although inactive in cells under normal conditions, the CHOP gene is markedly induced by a variety of cellular stresses, including nutrient deprivation and metabolic perturbations. These lead to accumulation of CHOP protein in the nucleus. Because cellular stress normally leads to growth arrest, we examined the implication of CHOP in this process. Microinjection of CHOP expression plasmids into NIH-3T3 cells blocked the cells from progressing through the cell cycle, measured by an attenuation in the fraction of cells incorporating BrdU, an S-phase marker. The precise point in the cell cycle at which CHOP acts was mapped by microinjection of bacterially expressed CHOP protein into synchronized cells--this blocked the cells from progressing from G1 to S phase. This effect of CHOP was observed only when the protein was introduced early after serum stimulation suggesting that CHOP works at or around the so-called G1/S checkpoint. CHOP dimerizes with other C/EBP proteins and the CHOP-C/EBP dimers are directed away from "classical" C/EBP sites recognizing instead unique "nonclassical" sites. Mutant forms of the CHOP protein that lack the leucine zipper dimerization domain or the unusually structured basic region, potentially involved in DNA binding, fail to induce growth arrest. A tumor-specific form of CHOP, TLS-CHOP, that has been found so far exclusively in the human adipose tissue tumor myxoid liposarcoma, fails to cause growth arrest and furthermore interferes with the ability of normal CHOP to induce growth arrest. CHOP has been shown recently to be markedly inducible by nutritional deprivation of cells. This suggests that CHOP may play a role in an inducible growth arrest pathway that is triggered by metabolic cues and is of particular importance in adipose tissue--an organ that undergoes marked changes in its metabolic activity. Blocking of this pathway by TLS-CHOP may play a mechanistic role in the establishment of myxoid liposarcoma.

A novel effector domain from the RNA-binding protein TLS or EWS is required for oncogenic transformation by CHOP.

Abstract: In human myxoid liposarcoma, a chromosomal rearrangement leads to fusion of the growth-arresting and DNA-damage-inducible transcription factor CHOP (GADD153) to a peptide fragment encoded by the TLS gene. We have found that wild-type TLS and a closely related sarcoma-associated protein, EWS, are both abundant nuclear proteins that associate in vivo with products of RNA polymerase II transcription. This association leads to the formation of a ternary complex with other heterogeneous RNA-binding proteins (hnRNPs), such as A1 and C1/C2. An NIH-3T3-based transformation assay was used to study the oncogenic role of the sarcoma-associated domain of these RNA-binding proteins. Transduction of the TLS-CHOP oncogene into cells by means of a retroviral expression vector leads to loss of contact inhibition, acquisition of the ability to grow as colonies in soft agar, and tumor formation in nude mice. Mutations that interfere with the function of the leucine zipper dimerization domain or the adjacent basic region of CHOP abolish transformation. The essential role of the TLS component was revealed by the inability of truncated forms to fully transform cells. Domain swap between TLS- and EWS-associated oncogenes demonstrated that the component contributed by the RNA-binding proteins are functionally interchangeable, whereas the transcription factor component specifies tumor phenotype. The sarcoma-associated component of TLS and EWS contribute a strong transcriptional activation domain to the fusion proteins; however, transforming activity cannot be fully substituted by fusion of CHOP to other strong trans-activators. The juxtaposition of a novel effector domain from sarcoma-associated RNA-binding proteins to the targeting domain of transcription factors such as CHOP leads to the creation of a potent oncogene.

Transcriptional activation by TAL1 and FUS-CHOP proteins expressed in acute malignancies as a result of chromosomal abnormalities

Abstract: Proteins that appear to participate in transcriptional control of gene expression are increasingly implicated in leukemias and malignant solid tumors. We report here that the N-terminal domains of the proteins TAL1 (ectopically activated in T-cell acute leukemias after chromosomal abnormalities caused by V-D-J recombinase error) (V, variable; D, diversity; J, joining) and FUS-CHOP (a liposarcoma tumor-specific fusion protein that is produced as a result of a chromosomal translocation) can function as transcription activators of specific responsive reporter genes. The result with TAL1 provides evidence that transcriptional activation can be mediated by a gene activated by translocation in T-cell acute leukemias. In the case of the liposarcoma, transactivation by the FUS-CHOP protein occurs because the FUS transcriptional activation domain is added to the DNA-binding CHOP protein normally lacking such activity. Therefore, the association of transcriptional activation and DNA-binding elements is a common consequence in proteins activated or newly created as fusion proteins after chromosomal translocations in acute leukemias and in malignant solid tumors.