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Critical role for Daxx in regulating Mdm2

Nature Cell Biology volume 8, pages 855–862 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

The tumour suppressor p53 induces apoptosis or cell-cycle arrest in response to genotoxic and other stresses1,2. In unstressed cells, the anti-proliferative effects of p53 are restrained by mouse double minute 2 (Mdm2), a ubiquitin ligase (E3) that promotes p53 ubiquitination and degradation3. Mdm2 also mediates its own degradation through auto-ubiquitination. It is unclear how the cis- and trans-E3 activities of Mdm2, which have opposing effects on cell fate, are differentially regulated. Here, we show that death domain-associated protein (Daxx)4 is required for Mdm2 stability. Downregulation of Daxx decreases Mdm2 levels, whereas overexpression of Daxx strongly stabilizes Mdm2. Daxx simultaneously binds to Mdm2 and the deubiquitinase Hausp, and it mediates the stabilizing effect of Hausp on Mdm2. In addition, Daxx enhances the intrinsic E3 activity of Mdm2 towards p53. On DNA damage, Daxx dissociates from Mdm2, which correlates with Mdm2 self-degradation. These findings reveal that Daxx modulates the function of Mdm2 at multiple levels and suggest that the disruption of the Mdm2–Daxx interaction may be important for p53 activation in response to DNA damage.

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Figure 1: Daxx controls the stability of p53 and Mdm2.
Figure 2: Daxx physically interacts with Mdm2 and enhances Mdm2-dependent p53 ubiquitination.
Figure 3: Daxx associates with Hausp.
Figure 4: Daxx enhances the interaction between Hausp and Mdm2.
Figure 5: DNA-damage regulates the interaction of Daxx with Mdm2 and Hausp.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P. Leder for wild type and Daxx−/− ES cells, H. Wu and Y. Xiong for p53−/− Mdm2−/− MEF cells, W. Gu for Hausp cDNA, G. Maul and B. Vogelstein for reagents, and D. George and S. Fuchs for advice. We also thank the Proteomic Core Facility of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania for mass spectrometry analysis and the National Cell Culture Center for providing HeLa S3 cells. J.T. was a postdoctoral appointee of an National Cancer Institute training grant (T32CA09140). X.Y. is supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants (CA88868 and GM60911) and a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar Award.

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Author notes

  1. Yan Y. Degenhardt

    Present address: TMG/Human Biomarker Center-PA, GlaxoSmithKline, King of Prussia, PA 19406, USA

  2. Jun Tang and Li-Ke Qu: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute and Department of Cancer Biology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, 19104, PA, USA

    Jun Tang, Li-Ke Qu & Xiaolu Yang

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, 19104, PA, USA

    Jianke Zhang

  3. Departments of Medicine, Genetics and Pharmacology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, 19104, PA, USA

    Wenge Wang & Wafik S. El-Deiry

  4. Department of Exploratory Science, Biogen Idec, Cambridge, 02142, MA, USA

    Jennifer S. Michaelson

  5. Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute and Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, 19104, PA, USA

    Yan Y. Degenhardt

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  1. Jun Tang
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Contributions

J.T. L.Q. And X.Y conceived and designed the experiments, analysed data and wrote the paper. J.T. and L.Q. performed the experiments. J.Z. and J.M. performed ES cell culture. W.W. and W.E. contributed reagents and performed apoptosis analysis. Y.Y.D. performed real-time RT−PCR.

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Correspondence to Xiaolu Yang.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Figures S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5 (PDF 1023 kb)

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Tang, J., Qu, LK., Zhang, J. et al. Critical role for Daxx in regulating Mdm2. Nat Cell Biol 8, 855–862 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1442

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