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Mutations of tumor necrosis factor α-responsive serine residues within the C-terminal transactivation domain of human transcription factor REL enhance its in vitro transforming ability

Oncogene volume 24, pages 7355–7368 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

The human c-rel gene (REL), encoding an NF-κB transcription factor, is amplified or mutated in several human B-cell lymphomas and can transform chicken lymphoid cells in vitro. We have previously shown that certain deletions of C-terminal transactivation sequences enhance REL's transforming ability in chicken spleen cells. In this report, we have analysed the effect of single amino-acid changes at select serine residues in the C-terminal transactivation domain on REL's transforming ability. Mutation of either of two TNFα-inducible serine residues (Ser460 and Ser471) to nonphosphorylatable residues (alanine, asparagine, phenylalanine) made REL more efficient at transforming chicken spleen cells in vitro. In contrast, mutation of Ser471 to a phosphorylation mimetic aspartate residue impaired REL's transforming ability, even though it increased REL's inherent transactivation ability as a GAL4-fusion protein. Alanine mutations of several other serine residues within the transactivation domain did not substantially affect REL's transforming ability. Transactivation by GAL4-REL fusion proteins containing either transformation enhancing or nonenhancing mutations at serine residues was generally similar to wild-type GAL4-REL. However, more transforming mutants with mutations at either Ser460 or Ser471 differed from wild-type REL in their ability to transactivate certain κB-site reporter genes. In particular, the SOD2 promoter, encoding manganese superoxide dismutase, was activated less strongly by the more transforming REL mutant REL-S471N in transient assays, but REL-S471N-transformed chicken spleen cells had increased levels of MnSOD protein as compared to wild-type REL-transformed cells. Taken together, our results show that mutations of certain serine residues can enhance REL's transforming ability in vitro and suggest that these mutations increase REL-mediated transformation by altering REL's ability to modulate the expression of select target genes. Furthermore, phosphorylation of Ser471 may be involved in REL-mediated modulation of transformation-specific target gene expression. Lastly, these results suggest that similar mutations in the REL transactivation domain contribute to the development of certain human B-cell lymphomas.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Nancy Rice for anti-REL antisera, Joseph Lipsick for the GAL4-site luciferase reporter plasmid, Manuel Fresno for some of the REL Ser-to-Ala mutants, Ruhul Abid for the SOD2 reporter plasmid, and Henry Bose for the IκBα reporter plasmid. We also thank members of our laboratory for critical reading of the manuscript and helpful discussion. DTS was partially supported by a Pre-doctoral Fellowship from the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada. This work was supported by NIH Grant CA47763 (to TDG).

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  1. Department of Biology, Boston University, 5 Cummington Street, Boston, 02215, MA, USA

    Daniel T Starczynowski, Joseph G Reynolds & Thomas D Gilmore

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  1. Daniel T Starczynowski
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Correspondence to Thomas D Gilmore.

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Starczynowski, D., Reynolds, J. & Gilmore, T. Mutations of tumor necrosis factor α-responsive serine residues within the C-terminal transactivation domain of human transcription factor REL enhance its in vitro transforming ability. Oncogene 24, 7355–7368 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1208902

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