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Influence of promoter DNA topology on sequence-specific DNA binding and transactivation by tumor suppressor p53

Abstract

Transcriptional activation by the tumor suppressor p53 is regulated at multiple levels, including posttranslational modifications of the p53 protein, interaction of p53 with various regulatory proteins, or at the level of sequence-specific DNA binding to the response elements in p53's target genes. We here propose as an additional regulatory mechanism that the DNA topology of p53-responsive promoters may determine the interaction of p53 with its target genes. We demonstrate that sequence-specific DNA binding (SSDB) and transcriptional activation by p53 of the mdm2 promoter is inhibited when this promoter is present in supercoiled DNA, where it forms a non-B-DNA structure which spans the p53-responsive elements. Relaxation of the supercoiled DNA in vitro resulted in conversion of the non-B-DNA to a B-DNA conformation within the mdm2 promoter, and correlated with an enhanced SSDB of p53 and an elevated expression of a reporter gene. In contrast, sequence specific DNA binding and transcriptional activation of the p21 promoter were not inhibited by DNA supercoiling. We propose that conformational alterations within p53-responsive sites, which either promote or prohibit sequence specific DNA binding of p53, are an important feature in orchestrating the activation of different p53 responsive promoters.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Drs M Oren, K Vousden and B Vogelstein for providing the pG12-hmdm2-luc, pCDNA3-wtp53 and WWP-luc constructs, respectively, and S Freist and D Weidemann for their help with the photography. This study was supported by grants from the Deutsche Krebshilfe (Dr Mildred Scheel Stiftung), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie. The Heinrich-Pette-Institut is financially supported by the Bundesministerium für Gesundheit and the Freie und Hansesstadt Hamburg.

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Kim, E., Rohaly, G., Heinrichs, S. et al. Influence of promoter DNA topology on sequence-specific DNA binding and transactivation by tumor suppressor p53. Oncogene 18, 7310–7318 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1203139

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