Article abstract


Nature Cell Biology 10, 547 - 555 (2008)
Published online: 13 April 2008 | doi:10.1038/ncb1717

Arsenic degrades PML or PML–RARalpha through a SUMO-triggered RNF4/ubiquitin-mediated pathway

Valérie Lallemand-Breitenbach1,5, Marion Jeanne1,5, Shirine Benhenda1, Rihab Nasr1, Ming Lei1, Laurent Peres1, Jun Zhou1,2, Jun Zhu1,2, Brian Raught3 & Hugues de Thé1,2,4


In acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL), arsenic trioxide induces degradation of the fusion protein encoded by the PML–RARA oncogene, differentiation of leukaemic cells and produces clinical remissions. SUMOylation of its PML moiety was previously implicated, but the nature of the degradation pathway involved and the role of PML–RARalpha catabolism in the response to therapy have both remained elusive. Here, we demonstrate that arsenic-induced PML SUMOylation triggers its Lys 48-linked polyubiquitination and proteasome-dependent degradation. When exposed to arsenic, SUMOylated PML recruits RNF4, the human orthologue of the yeast SUMO-dependent E3 ubiquitin-ligase, as well as ubiquitin and proteasomes onto PML nuclear bodies. Arsenic-induced differentiation is impaired in cells transformed by a non-degradable PML–RARalpha SUMOylation mutant or in APL cells transduced with a dominant-negative RNF4, directly implicating PML–RARalpha catabolism in the therapeutic response. We thus identify PML as the first protein degraded by SUMO-dependent polyubiquitination. As PML SUMOylation recruits not only RNF4, ubiquitin and proteasomes, but also many SUMOylated proteins onto PML nuclear bodies, these domains could physically integrate the SUMOylation, ubiquitination and degradation pathways.

Top
  1. Université de Paris 7/CNRS UMR 7151, Equipe Labellisée N°11 Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer, Hôpital St. Louis, 1, Av. C. Vellefaux 75475 Paris CEDEX 10 France.
  2. CNRS Laboratoire Associé MPC, Shanghai Institute of Hematology, Rui Jin Hospital, 197 Rui Jin Road, 200025 Shanghai China.
  3. Ontario Cancer Institute and McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine 101 College St., MaRS TMDT 9-805, Toronto, ON M5G 1L7 Canada.
  4. Institut Universitaire de France.
  5. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Correspondence to: Hugues de Thé1,2,4 e-mail: dethe@univ-paris-diderot.fr



MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Marked for death

Nature Cell Biology News and Views (01 May 2008)


Extra navigation

Subscribe to Nature Cell Biology

Subscribe

Open Innovation Challenges

  • Optimizing Sub-cellular Localization Tags

    • Deadline: Nov 29 2009
    • Reward: $20,000 USD

    The Seeker is looking for methods to optimize sub-cellular localization tags for protein expression....

  • Single-cell Analysis Platform

    • Deadline: Dec 02 2009
    • Reward: $5,000 USD

    This Challenge is looking for novel approaches to analyzing changes at a single-cell level. This is...

naturejobs