Hypoxia and acidosis occur in a wide variety of physiological and pathological settings that include muscle stress, tumour development and ischaemic disorders. A central element in the adaptive response to cellular hypoxia is HIF (hypoxia-inducible factor), a transcription factor that activates an array of genes implicated in oxygen homeostasis, tumour vascularization and ischaemic preconditioning¹. HIF is activated by hypoxia, but undergoes degradation by the VHL (von Hippel-Lindau) tumour suppressor protein in the presence of oxygen^{2, 3}. Here, we demonstrate that hypoxia induction or normoxic acidosis can neutralize the function of VHL by triggering its nucleolar sequestration, a regulatory mechanism of protein function that is observed rarely^{4, 5, 6, 7}. VHL is confined to nucleoli until neutral pH conditions are re-instated. Nucleolar sequestration of VHL enables HIF to evade destruction in the presence of oxygen and activate its target genes. Our findings suggest that an increase in hydrogen ions elicits a transient and reversible loss of VHL function by promoting its nucleolar sequestration.

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