Anjana Rao recounts the contributions of two talented and productive postdoctoral fellows who purified and characterized the transcription factor NFAT.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Transcriptome analysis of Xenopus orofacial tissues deficient in retinoic acid receptor function
BMC Genomics Open Access 03 November 2018
Access options
References
Jain, J., Valge-Archer, V.E., Sinskey, A.J. & Rao, A. The AP-1 site at -150 bp, but not the NF-κB site, is likely to represent the major target of protein kinase C in the interleukin 2 promoter. J. Exp. Med. 175, 853–862 (1992).
Lenardo, M.J. & Baltimore, D. NF-κB: a pleiotropic mediator of inducible and tissue-specific gene control. Cell 58, 227–229 (1989).
Curran, T. & Franza, B.R. Jr. Fos and Jun: the AP-1 connection. Cell 55, 395–397 (1988).
Serfling, E. et al. Ubiquitous and lymphocyte-specific factors are involved in the induction of the mouse interleukin 2 gene in T lymphocytes. EMBO J. 8, 465–473 (1989).
Schreiber, S.L. & Crabtree, G.R. The mechanism of action of cyclosporin A and FK506. Immunol. Today 13, 136–142 (1992).
Shaw, J.P. et al. Identification of a putative regulator of early T cell activation genes. Science 241, 202–205 (1988).
McCaffrey, P.G., Jain, J., Jamieson, C., Sen, R. & Rao, A. T cell nuclear factor resembling NF-AT binds to an NF-κB site and to the conserved lymphokine promoter sequence “cytokine-1”. J. Biol. Chem. 267, 1864–1871 (1992).
Goldfeld, A.E., McCaffrey, P.G., Strominger, J.L. & Rao, A. Identification of a novel cyclosporin-sensitive element in the human tumor necrosis factor α gene promoter. J. Exp. Med. 178, 1365–1379 (1993).
McCaffrey, P.G., Goldfeld, A.E. & Rao, A. The role of NFATp in cyclosporin A-sensitive tumor necrosis factor-α gene transcription. J. Biol. Chem. 269, 30445–30450 (1994).
McCaffrey, P.G. et al. Isolation of the cyclosporin-sensitive T cell transcription factor NFATp. Science 262, 750–754 (1993).
Jain, J., Burgeon, E., Badalian, T.M., Hogan, P.G. & Rao, A. A similar DNA-binding motif in NFAT-family proteins and the Rel homology region. J. Biol. Chem. 270, 4138–4145 (1995).
1 Baeuerle, P.A. & Baltimore, D. Activation of DNA-binding activity in an apparently cytoplasmic precursor of the NF-κB transcription factor. Cell 53, 211–217 (1988).
Jain, J., McCaffrey, P.G., Valge-Archer, V.E. & Rao, A. Nuclear factor of activated T cells contains Fos and Jun. Nature 356, 801–804 (1992).
McCaffrey, P.G., Perrino, B.A., Soderling, T.R. & Rao, A. NF-ATp, a T lymphocyte DNA-binding protein that is a target for calcineurin and immunosuppressive drugs. J. Biol. Chem. 268, 3747–3752 (1993).
Jain, J., Miner, Z. & Rao, A. Analysis of the preexisting and nuclear forms of nuclear factor of activated T cells. J. Immunol. 151, 837–848 (1993).
Valge-Archer, V.E., de Villiers, J., Sinskey, A.J. & Rao, A. Transformation of T lymphocytes by the v-fos oncogene. J. Immunol. 145, 4355–4364 (1990).
Jain, J. et al. The T-cell transcription factor NFATp is a substrate for calcineurin and interacts with Fos and Jun. Nature 365, 352–355 (1993).
Larson, C.J. & Verdine, G.L. A high-capacity column for affinity purification of sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins. Nucleic Acids Res. 20, 3525 (1992).
Shaw, K.T.-Y. et al. Immunosuppressive drugs prevent a rapid dephosphorylation of the transcription factor NFAT1 in stimulated immune cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 11205–11209 (2005).
Kiani, A., Rao, A. & Aramburu, J. Manipulating immune responses with immunosuppressive agents that target NFAT. Immunity 12, 359–372 (2000).
Hogan, P.G., Chen, L., Nardone, J. & Rao, A. Transcriptional regulation by calcium, calcineurin and NFAT. Genes Dev. 17, 2205–2232 (2003).
Crabtree, G.R. & Olson, E.N. NFAT signaling: choreographing the social lives of cells. Cell 109, S67–S79 (2002).
Wu, Y. et al. FOXP3 controls T regulatory function through cooperation with NFAT. Cell 126, 375–387 (2006).
Agarwal, S. & Rao, A. Modulation of chromatin structure regulates cytokine gene expression during T cell differentiation. Immunity 9, 765–775 (1998).
Feske, S. et al. A mutation in Orai1 causes immune deficiency by abrogating CRAC channel function. Nature 441, 179–185 (2006).
Prakriya, M. et al. Orai1 is an essential pore subunit subunit of the CRAC channel. Nature 443, 230–233 (2006).
Acknowledgements
I thank J. Jain, P. McCaffrey and P. Hogan for help with this essay. Supported by the National Institutes of Health (CA42471 and AI40127).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rao, A. Signaling to gene expression: calcium, calcineurin and NFAT. Nat Immunol 10, 3–5 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni0109-3
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ni0109-3
This article is cited by
-
TRPV4 channel is involved in HSV-2 infection in human vaginal epithelial cells through triggering Ca2+ oscillation
Acta Pharmacologica Sinica (2023)
-
Calcium signalling pathways in prostate cancer initiation and progression
Nature Reviews Urology (2023)
-
Transcriptome analysis of Xenopus orofacial tissues deficient in retinoic acid receptor function
BMC Genomics (2018)
-
Activation of NFAT signaling establishes a tumorigenic microenvironment through cell autonomous and non-cell autonomous mechanisms
Oncogene (2014)
-
Inositol trisphosphate 3-kinases: focus on immune and neuronal signaling
Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (2010)
