Abstract
In gastrointestinal cells, biological signals for transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) are transduced through transmembrane serine/threonine kinase receptors that signal to Smad proteins. Smad4, a tumor suppressor, is often mutated in human gastrointestinal cancers. The mechanism of Smad4 inactivation, however, remains uncertain and could be through E3-mediated ubiquitination of Smad4/adaptor protein complexes. Disruption of ELF (embryonic liver fodrin), a Smad4 adaptor protein, modulates TGF-β signaling. We have found that PRAJA, a RING-H2 protein, interacts with ELF in a TGF-β-dependent manner, with a fivefold increase of PRAJA expression and a subsequent decrease in ELF and Smad4 expression, in gastrointestinal cancer cell lines (P<0.05). Strikingly, PRAJA manifests substantial E3-dependent ubiquitination of ELF and Smad3, but not Smad4. Δ-PRAJA, which has a deleted RING finger domain at the C terminus, abolishes ubiquitination of ELF. A stable cell line that overexpresses PRAJA exhibits low levels of ELF in comparison to a Δ-PRAJA stable cell line, where ELF expression is high compared to normal controls. The alteration of ELF and/or Smad4 expression and/or function in the TGF-β signaling pathway may be induced by enhancement of ELF degradation, which is mediated by a high-level expression of PRAJA in gastrointestinal cancers. In hepatocytes, half-life (t1/2) and rate constant for degradation (kD) of ELF is 1.91 h and 21.72 min−1 when coupled with ectopic expression of PRAJA in cells stimulated by TGF-β, compared to PRAJA-transfected unstimulated cells (t1/2=4.33 h and kD=9.6 min−1). These studies reveal a mechanism for tumorigenesis whereby defects in adaptor proteins for Smads, such as ELF, can undergo degradation by PRAJA, through the ubiquitin-mediated pathway.
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Abbreviations
- RING:
-
Really Interesting New Gene
- TGF-β:
-
transforming growth factor-beta
- ELF:
-
embryonic liver fodrin
- SARA:
-
Smad anchor for receptor activation
- ORF:
-
open-reading frame
- HECT:
-
homologous to E6-AP C-terminus
- HEF1:
-
human enhancer of filamentation 1
- APC:
-
anaphase-promoting complex
- IκB:
-
inhibitor of nuclear factor κB
- PML:
-
promyelocytic leukemia protein
- RFP:
-
ret finger protein
- IAP:
-
inhibitors of apoptosis
- PH:
-
partial hepatectomy
- PBS:
-
phosphate-buffered saline
- BSA:
-
bovine serum albumin
- ATCC:
-
American Type Culture Collection
- HCC:
-
hepatocellular carcinoma
- DMEM:
-
Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium
- FBS:
-
fetal bovine serum
- IP:
-
immunoprecipitation
- IB:
-
immunoblotting
- FITC:
-
fluorescein isothiocyanate
- SDS:
-
sodium dodecyl sulfate
- ECL:
-
enhanced chemiluminescence
- WB:
-
Western blotting
- SDS–PAGE:
-
SDS–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
- VA-1:
-
ELF-specific polyclonal antibody
- HA:
-
hemagglutinin
- R-Smad:
-
receptor-regulated Smad
- PDB:
-
protein data bank
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Acknowledgements
We thank Drs M Zasloff and S Evans for their critical review of the manuscript, and R Redman and A Rashid for their invaluable assistance with histopathology specimens and extensive confirmatory review of all slides. Grant Support: NIHR01 DK56111 (LM), NIHR01 CA106614-01A2 (LM), NIHR01 DK58637 (BM), VA Merit Award (LM), and R Robert and Sally D Funderburg Research Scholar (LM).
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Saha, T., Vardhini, D., Tang, Y. et al. RING finger-dependent ubiquitination by PRAJA is dependent on TGF-β and potentially defines the functional status of the tumor suppressor ELF. Oncogene 25, 693–705 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1209123
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1209123
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