Published online 13 January 2006
Article |
p66
and p66ß of the Mi-2/NuRD complex mediate MBD2 and histone interaction
Institute for Genetics, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen and Heinrich-Buff-Ring 58-62 D-35392 Giessen, Germany
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +49 641 99 35460; Fax: +49 641 99 35469; Email: Rainer.Renkawitz{at}gen.bio.uni-giessen.de
Received November 16, 2005. Revised December 22, 2005. Accepted December 22, 2005.
| ABSTRACT |
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The Mi-2/NuRD complex is a multi-subunit protein complex with enzymatic activities involving chromatin remodeling and histone deacetylation. Targeting of Mi-2/NuRD to methylated CpG sequences mediates gene repression. The function of p66
and of p66ß within the multiple subunits has not been addressed. Here, we analyzed the in vivo function and binding of both p66-paralogs. Both factors function in synergy, since knocking-down p66
affects the repressive function of p66ß and vice versa. Both proteins interact with MBD2 functionally and biochemically. Mutation of a single amino acid of p66
abolishes in vivo binding to MBD2 and interferes with MBD2-mediated repression. This loss of binding results in a diffuse nuclear localization in contrast to wild-type p66
that shows a speckled nuclear distribution. Furthermore, wild-type subnuclear distribution of p66
and p66ß depends on the presence of MBD2. Both proteins interact with the tails of all octamer histones in vitro, and acetylation of histone tails interferes with p66 binding. The conserved region 2 of p66
is required for histone tail interaction as well as for wild-type subnuclear distribution. These results suggest a two-interaction forward feedback binding mode, with a stable chromatin association only after deacetylation of the histones has occurred. | INTRODUCTION |
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DNA methylation at the 5'-position of cytosine within CpG dinucleotides has been shown to mediate long-term transcriptional repression of transposons, imprinted genes and of the inactive X chromosome in female mammals (1). Furthermore, CpG methylation is often found in the context of tissue-specific genes in non-expressing tissues. Similarly, DNA hypomethylation of the genome as well as methylation-dependent silencing of tumor suppressor genes is often found in human cancer (25). The molecular mechanism of DNA methylation-mediated gene repression has been shown to involve several aspects. In addition to changing the DNA structure (6), binding of several regulatory factors is influenced or inhibited. This has been shown for the DNA binding factors NF-
B (7), E2F (8), CpG binding protein CGBP (9), GABP (10,11), CREB (12), as well as for the insulator factor CTCF (13,14). Although in these cases an inhibition of DNA binding has been clearly shown to be involved in gene repression, this mechanism seems to be restricted to a small group of genes and regulatory sequences. The most commonly observed mechanism of DNA methylation-mediated transcriptional repression involves modification of the chromatin structure. A family of DNA binding proteins harboring a methyl-CpG-binding domain (MBD) recognizes and binds to methylated CpG sequences (15).
The MBD-containing family members MeCP2, MBD1, MBD2 and MBD3 recruit histone deacetylases (HDAC), which in turn deacetylate histone tails resulting in the generation of a repressive chromatin conformation (1619). MeCP2 interacts with the Sin3A histone deacetylase complex (20,21). It has recently been shown that MeCP2-mediated repression is associated with the chromatin remodeling complex SWI/SNF, which is possibly involved in changing the chromatin architecture such that histone deacetylases can act on histone tails (22). Similarly, within the MeCP1 complex, MBD2 is associated with the Mi-2/NuRD complex that contains histone deacetylases as well as chromatin remodeling factors (18,23). In contrast to MeCP2, the MBD3 factor of the Mi-2/NuRD complex is unable to bind to methylated CpG sequences in mammals, instead this complex associates with MBD2, which in turn binds to methylated CpGs (18,19). Besides MBD3, the Mi-2/NuRD complex consists of the histone deacetylases HDAC1 and HDAC2 together with the retinoblastoma-associated proteins RbAp46 and RbAp48. These factors are central components of the Mi-2/NuRD complex, the Sin3A complex, as well as of other chromatin associated complexes [reviewed in (24)]. In addition, MTA2 as well as the chromatin remodeling factor Mi-2 together with p66 are components of the Mi-2/NuRD complex (18). There are two members of a small gene family coding for p66
and p66ß, both of which interact with MBD2 as well as with MBD3 (25). We wished to analyze the functional interplay between p66
and p66ß in the context of MBD2-mediated repression. The results show that p66
and p66ß target to DNA bound MBD2 as well as to unmodified, deacetylated histones. Both functions are mediated by separate domains, both of which are required for wild-type distribution within the nucleus.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Plasmids
pABGal-hp66
and pABGal-hp66ß were constructed as described previously (25). pSG5-hp66
was generated by subcloning the EcoRI/XbaI fragment from pOTB7-hp66
(25) into pSG5 (Stratagene) opened with EcoRI/BamHI. pSG5-hp66ß was cloned by ligating the EcoRI/BamHI fragment of pABGal-hp66ß into pSG5. C-terminal deletions of pSG5-hp66
were generated by digesting the full-length construct with BglII/EheI (amino acids 1433), BglII/BcuI (amino acids 1329) or BglII/SacI (amino acids 1238) and religating the blunted ends. For pSG5-hp66
134633 the BspHI/XbaI fragment from pOTB7-hp66
was cloned in-frame into pABGal94 linker (26) to generate pABGal-hp66
134633 which was then digested with EcoRI/BamHI and ligated into pSG5. CR2 of hp66
was amplified with primers 5'-GCCGAGGATCCAGCAAGCATGCAGGC-3' and 5'-GCCGAGATCTGCTGCAGGAGCCGCT-3', the product was digested with BamHI/BglII and ligated into pSG5 to generate pSG5-hp66
344480. For transfections, the 4xUAStk luciferase reporter construct and expression plasmid pCMV-lacZ encoding ß-galactosidase were kindly provided by A. Baniahmad. pEGFP-hp66
was constructed by ligating the SalI/BamHI fragment from pAB-Gal94-hp66
into pEGFP-C1 (Clontech). pEGFP-hp66
1482 or 1348 were amplified with the sense primer 5'-TGCAGTCGACCATATGACCGAAGA-3' and the antisense primers 5'-CGGATCCTGCTGCAGGAGCC-3' or 5'-GCGGATCCGCTTGCTGGAGACT-3', respectively. Products were then digested with SalI/BamHI and ligated into pEGFP-C1. Construction of pEGFP-hp66ß was described previously (25). C-terminal deletions pEGFP-hp66ß 1489 and 1354 were generated via PCR with sense primer 5'-TGCAGTCGACATGGATAGAATGACAGA-3' and antisense primers 5'-GGGATCCCTGCTGCTGTAATCG-3' and 5'-GCTGGATCCTGTGAGTTGGCAG-3', respectively. The generated products were treated with SalI/BamHI and cloned into pEGFP-C1. Cloning of pABGal-MBD2b was explained earlier (16). pSil-
X was cloned by annealing oligos 5'-GATCCGGAACAGGAGATTGAGCAGTTCAAGAGACTGCTCAATCTCCTGTTCCTTTTTTTGGAAA-3' and 5'-AGCTTTTCCAAAAAACAGGAACAGGAGATTGAGCAGTCTCTTGAACTGCTCAATCTCCTGTTCCG-3' and ligating the product into pSilencer 2.1-U6 neo (Ambion) digested with BamHI/HindIII. pSil-ßX was created using oligos 5'-GATCCGGAGGATTTGGCAAATCTTTCAAGAGAAGATTTGCCAAATCCTTCCTTTTTTGGAAA-3' and 5'-AGCTTTTCCAAAAAAGGAAGGATTTGGCAAATCTTCTCTTGAAAGATTTGCCAAATCCTTCCG-3' into pSilencer 2.1-U6 neo opened with BamHI/HindIII. pABGal-p66
with single amino acid substitution K149R was constructed using the QuikChange site-directed mutagenesis kit (Stratagene) according to the manufacturer's instructions with the sense primers 5'-GGATGATCAAGCAGCTGAGGGAAGAATTGAGGTTAG-3' and antisense primers 5'-CTAACCTCAATTCTTCCCTCAGCTGCTTGATCATCC-3'. The enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) fusion of p66
K149R was generated by cutting the SalI/BamHI fragment of pABGal-p66
K149R and insertion into pEGFP-p66
cut with SalI/BamHI. pSG5-p66
K149R was created by ligation of the SalI/BamHI fragment from pABGal-p66
K149R into pSG5-p66ß digested with SalI/BamHI. Plasmids for the bacterial expression of glutathione S-transferase (GST)-fused histone tails (pGEX1-H2A, pGEX1-H2B, pGEX1-H3, pGEX1-H4) were gratefully received from C. Wu (27); constructs pGEX-2T-p300 and pGEX-5X-PCAF for the expression of the HAT-domains of GST-p300 and GST-PCAF were obtained from S. Berger (28). Generation of pCMV-GST-MBD2b for eukaryotic protein expression was presented previously (25).
Cell culture and transfections
All cells were cultured in DMEM with 10% fetal calf serum at 37°C, 5% CO2. Transfection of HeLa cells was carried out using the CaPO4 method as described elsewhere (29). Cells were cotransfected in 6-well plates (105 cells/well) using 0.751.5 µg of 4xUAStk-luciferase reporter plasmid, 0.2 µg of pCMV-lacZ encoding ß-galactosidase and 0.751.5 µg of expression plasmids. For reporter assays, knock-down of hp66-expression was achieved with 0.52.0 µg of pSil-
X or pSil-ßX. Cells were harvested 3696 h after transfection and assayed for luciferase and ß-galactosidase activity. All transfection assays shown were performed in duplicates or triplicates and repeated at least twice. Transfection of NIH 3T3 cells and MBD2(/) and wild-type tail fibroblasts [kindly provided by A. Bird (30)] was performed using jetPEI (Polyplus transfection) according to the manufacturer's protocol. For fluorescent imaging, cells were grown on cover slips in 6-well dishes (105 cells/well) and transfected with 3 µg of pEGFP-constructs. Images were taken 2448 h post-transfection using 100-fold magnification after incubation with Hoechst DNA stain for 10 min at 37°C. Significance of observed changes in reporter gene activity has been determined by the Dunnett's t-test and Tukey's studentized range (HSD) test, depending on the type of data analyzed.
Immunoblotting
For analysis of reduced protein expression, HeLa cells were transfected in 10 cm dishes (1 x 106 cells/dish) with 15 µg of pSil-
X, pSil-ßX and pSil-neg together with 15 µg pBSK (Stratagene). Nuclear extracts were prepared 96 h post-transfection essentially as described previously (31). Cells were resuspended in 3 vol of buffer A (20 mM HEPES, pH 7.9, 10% glycerol, 0.2% NP-40, 10 mM KCl and 1 mM EDTA). After centrifugation at 5000 g for 10 min at 4°C, the supernatant was discarded and the remaining nuclei pellet resuspended in 2 vol buffer B (420 mM NaCl, 20 mM HEPES, pH 7.9, 10 mM KCl and 1 mM EDTA), followed by rotational incubation for 30 min at 4°C. To remove cell debris, the extract was centrifuged at 20 000 g for 15 min at 4°C. The supernatant was separated using a 12% SDSPAGE and analyzed by western blotting with an anti-p66 antibody (Upstate).
Mammalian pull-down
HEK293 cells were transiently cotransfected with mammalian expression vectors for pCMV-GST, pCMV-GST-MBD2b with Gal, Gal-p66
or Gal-p66
K149R. Cells were collected 48 h after transfection, and nuclear extracts was performed according to the protocol described above. Aliquots containing 400 µg of the nuclear extract were incubated with 40 µl glutathioneSepharose 4B beads (Amersham Biosciences) for 30 min at room temperature. The beads were washed four times with washing buffer (200 mM NaCl, 20 mM TrisHCl, pH 8.0, 1 mM EDTA and 0.5% NP-40). Proteins binding to the beads were eluted with SDS sample buffer, separated on SDSPAGE and subsequently detected by western blotting with anti-Gal4 polyclonal IgG antibody. The ECLTM kit (Amersham Biosciences) was used to visualize the proteins on the membrane following the manufacture's protocol.
GST pull-down of in vitro translated proteins
GST and GST-histone tails were expressed in Escherichia coli BL21. GST pull-downs were carried out essentially as described previously (16). Bacteria were induced with 0.2 mM isopropyl-ß-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) for 3 h at 20°C. Recombinant proteins were purified with glutathioneSepharose beads (Amersham Biosciences) and analyzed on SDSPAGE to normalize protein amounts. Equivalent amounts of GST fusion proteins were incubated with [35S]methionine-labeled hp66-proteins, produced by the T7/T3 TNT-coupled transcription/translation system (Promega) in 200 µl of binding buffer (100 mM NaCl, 20 mM TrisHCl, pH 8.0, 1 mM EDTA, 0.5% NP-40, 5 µg of ethidium bromide and 100 µg of BSA). After 30 min of incubation at room temperature, the beads were washed five times with 1 ml of binding buffer without ethidium bromide and BSA. The bound proteins were eluted with SDS sample buffer, fractionated on SDSPAGE and visualized by fluorography.
Acetylation-dependent interaction
For the acetylation of histone tails GST-p300 and GST-PCAF were expressed in E.coli BL21 cells after induction with IPTG for 5 h at 20°C. The pellet of a 400 ml culture was resuspended in 30 ml STE-buffer (150 mM NaCl, 10 mM TrisHCl, pH 8.0, 1 mM EDTA) and slowly frozen at 20°C. About 1.2 ml lysis buffer (250 mM MgCl2, 25 mM MnCl2, 250 µg/ml DNase I, 250 µg/ml RNase A and 12 µg/ml lysozyme) were added after thawing and incubated for 30 min at 4°C while rotating. Cell debris was pelleted by centrifugation for (30 min, 10 000 g, 4°C) and the supernatant incubated with 200 µl of 50% glutathioneSepharose beads (Amersham Biosciences) for 1 h at 4°C. The beads were washed three times with washing buffer (100 mM TrisHCl, pH 8.0, 100 mM NaCl) and the recombinant proteins eluted with 200 µl of elution buffer (20 mM reduced glutathione, 100 mM TrisHCl, pH 8.0, 100 mM NaCl) by incubating for 1 h at 4°C and subsequently for 1 h at 20°C. After centrifuging, the glutathione was removed by YM-10 Microcon columns according to the manufacturer's protocol (Millipore). Extracts were stored with 20% glycerol at 80°C.
To determine the acetylation pattern of the purified HAT-extracts, 23 µg of recombinant GST-histone tails were incubated for 0.52 h at 30°C with 12 µg of GST-PCAF or GST-p300 in 30 µl of acetylation buffer (50 mM TrisHCl, pH 8.0, 5% glycerol, 1 mM DTT and 10 mM Na Butyrate) together with 1 µCi [3H]Acetyl-CoA. Samples were fractionated on SDSPAGE and visualized by fluorography.
Analysis of acetylation-dependent interaction with histone tails was performed by acetylating glutathioneSepharose bound GST-histone tails with non-labeled Acetyl-CoA essentially as described above or by treating a second set of histone tails without Acetyl-CoA. Both sets of histone tails were then incubated with in vitro translated [35S]methionine-labeled hp66
or hp66ß proteins. Subsequently, all samples were treated according to the GST pull-down protocol described above.
| RESULTS |
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MBD2-mediated repression is increased by p66
and p66ßWe have previously reported that the paralogous proteins p66
and p66ß share a high degree of sequence homology that has been conserved throughout evolution. In addition, both paralogs have been identified as being interaction partners of the methyl-CpG-binding protein MBD2 (25,32). Since Gal-fusions of p66
and p66ß were shown to repress transcription of a UAS-reporter construct, we investigated the functional association of these paralogous proteins with MBD2. We first analyzed the influence of p66
and p66ß on MBD2-mediated repression. MBD2 was fused to a GAL4 DNA binding domain (Gal-DBD) and transfected into HeLa cells together with increasing amounts of p66
or p66ß and an appropriate luciferase reporter containing four GAL4 DNA binding sites (UAS). In agreement with previous reports (16), Gal-MBD2 repressed reporter activity by
14-fold in the absence of any cotransfected p66-constructs (Figure 1). MBD2-mediated repression was, however, enhanced in a dose-dependent manner up to 45-fold upon transfection of increasing amounts of p66
. Overexpression of p66ß increased the repression of Gal-MBD2 up to
28-fold. As a result, both p66-proteins are capable of enhancing MBD2-mediated repression, with the enhancement by p66
being stronger than by p66ß.
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In order to further characterize the influence of the p66-paralogs on MBD2-mediated repression, a second approach that involved knocking down of endogenous p66
and p66ß using RNAi and analyzing subsequent alterations of MBD2 function was performed. Using a vector driven shRNAi-procedure, target sequences were identified that resulted in a specific decrease of p66
or p66ß expression. HeLa cells were either transfected with constructs targeting p66
(pSil-
X), p66ß (pSil-ßX) or a non-targeting control sequence (pSil-neg) and analyzed for p66-expression using western blot analyses (Figure 2A). Since p66
and p66ß exhibit molecular weights of 68 and 66 kDa, respectively, both proteins could be separated via SDSPAGE and simultaneously identified using an antibody recognizing both p66
and p66ß. Figure 2A demonstrates that the expression of p66
or p66ß is clearly reduced 96 h after RNAi treatment. Importantly, knock-down of one p66-protein does not influence the expression of the other homologous partner, demonstrating that the expression levels of both p66-proteins are independent from one another and that each protein can be knocked down specifically using the shRNAi-approach.
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Having established suitable conditions for p66-knock-down, HeLa cells were transfected with plasmids coding either for Gal-DBD or for a Gal-MBD2 fusion and knock-down plasmids pSil-
X and pSil-ßX (Figure 2B). Gal-MBD2 repressed reporter activity by about 18-fold in the absence of targeted knock-down. However, knocking down p66
by cotransfecting pSil-
X relieved MBD2-mediated repression to 11-fold, and similar results were achieved by reducing p66ß expression. Notably, combined knock-down of both p66-proteins further abated MBD2-mediated repression down to 8-fold. MBD2-mediated repression is therefore at least partly dependent on p66
as well as on p66ß and can be influenced by overexpression or knock-down of both paralogous proteins.
Enhancement of MBD2-mediated repression is dependent on the direct interaction of MBD2 and p66
Since both p66
and p66ß influence repression by MBD2, we next investigated whether this finding is the result of a direct effect that is mediated by the interaction of the two homologs with MBD2. The conserved region 1 (CR1) located at the N-terminus of both p66-proteins has been shown to be an interaction domain with MBD2, and we had previously identified a minimal overlapping region within the CR1 of p66
that is required for this interaction (25). Database analysis revealed a highly conserved candidate SUMOylation consensus site contained within this sequence that is not present in p66ß. In order to disrupt this consensus sequence, we generated the point mutant p66
-K149R that retains the hydrophilic characteristic of the region. Detailed analysis of this mutant did not provide any evidence for SUMOylation of the wild-type site (data not shown). Nevertheless, we analyzed the interaction of p66
-K149R with MBD2 in vivo. GSTMBD2 was coexpressed with Gal-fused p66
-K149R in HEK 293 cells and nuclear extracts were bound to glutathioneSepharose beads. Coprecipitated proteins were detected on western blots using an antibody directed against Gal-DBD. Figure 3A illustrates that wild-type Gal-p66
precipitates with GSTMBD2. Although the mutant protein is highly expressed in these cells, Gal-p66
-K149R does not coprecipitate with MBD2. Furthermore, this mutant is not able to enhance MBD2-mediated repression as observed for the wild-type protein (Figure 3B). However, Gal-MBD2 repression in part mediated by p66
is slightly reduced, possibly due to a dominant negative effect of the K149R mutant. Taken together, these results suggest that the functional enhancement of MBD2-mediated repression by p66 involves a direct interaction between MBD2 and p66
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p66
and p66ß repress transcription downstream of MBD2p66
and p66ß are interaction partners with MBD2 and have been identified as being components of the Mi-2/NuRD complex. Functioning as the methyl-CpG-binding component, MBD2 is thought to target the Mi-2/NuRD complex to methylated DNA. It should be possible to replace the MBD2 function with the Gal-DNA binding domain fused directly to either p66
or p66ß in such a model. In order to test this, GAL-fusion constructs of p66
or p66ß were transfected into wild-type mouse fibroblast cells or into cells in which MBD2 has been knocked-out (30). As illustrated inFigure 4A, both p66-paralogs were able to repress transcription of a cotransfected luciferase reporter gene in wild-type fibroblast cells. Repression mediated by p66ß was about 2-fold lower than that mediated by p66
. This difference between p66
and p66ß is less pronounced when compared with CV-1 cells (25) and may reflect a cell-type specificity. Interestingly, both Gal-p66
and Gal-p66ß were able to repress transcription in an MBD2/ environment (Figure 4B). MBD2/ cells were treated using identical conditions as used for the wild-type cells. Both Gal-p66-proteins repressed transcription, with p66
-mediated repression also being about 2-fold stronger as compared with p66ß-mediated repression. While the overall repressive capacity of both proteins is lower than in wild-type fibroblasts, Gal-p66
and Gal-p66ß clearly still maintain their ability to repress transcription. MBD2 is therefore not essential for the repression by either Gal-p66
or Gal-p66ß, and thus does not function as a downstream factor for p66-mediated repression. Instead, MBD2 acts as the DNA binding factor targeting p66
and p66ß to DNA.
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p66
or p66ß requires the paralogous p66 partner for repressionDifferent approaches to purify the chromatin remodeling complex Mi-2/NuRD have resulted in the identification of two proteins of 66 and 68 kDa with strong homologies to the p66-component from Xenopus laevis. Although p66ß has been characterized as being a component of the human Mi-2/NuRD complex, the association of p66
and p66ß within the repressor complex had until now not been elucidated. In order to investigate the organization of both p66-paralogs within the repressor complex, the expression of one p66-protein was knocked down and the influence on the repressing activity of the paralogous partner was determined. HeLa cells were transfected with Gal-p66
, Gal-p66ß or the Gal4 DNA binding domain alone together with an appropriate reporter gene. Protein expression of p66
or p66ß was specifically reduced by cotransfecting pSil-
X or pSil-ßX and reporter gene activity was determined. As illustrated in Figure 5, reducing the expression of p66
or p66
influences repression by the Gal-fused paralog. Transfection of pSil-
X resulted in an expected decrease of Gal-p66
mediated repression by more than 14-fold; however, repression by p66ß was also decreased by a factor of 2.4, compared with a non-targeting knock-down construct (pSil-neg). Similarly, knock-down of p66ß not only decreased Gal-p66ß mediated repression about 3-fold, but also relieved Gal-p66
mediated repression by more than 4-fold. This effect could be explained by a functional interplay between p66
and p66ß, consistent with the idea that both proteins function as a part of the same complex.
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Acetylation-sensitive association of p66
and p66ß with histone tailsPost-translational modifications of histone tails are known to influence chromatin structure and gene expression (33). Deacetylation of histone tails by the MeCP1 complex causes chromatin condensation and transcriptional repression (34). MBD2, the DNA binding component of MeCP1, has been shown to associate with heterochromatin and to largely colocalize with p66
and p66ß (25). To address the question whether chromatin association of the MeCP1 complex might also be due to a direct interaction of the p66-proteins with histones, GST-fused histone tails of H2A, H2B, H3 and H4 were used in an in vitro pull-down assay with radioactively labeled p66-constructs. In vitro translated p66
and p66ß showed a strong affinity for all histone tails tested (Figure 6). C-terminal deletions of p66
that removed a part of or all of conserved region 2 (CR2) showed a reduced affinity for all histone tails tested. However, an N-terminal deletion of p66
or CR2 alone still retained the capacity to interact with histones. Although the CR2-domain is sufficient to mediate histone-tail interaction, the overall affinity is reduced compared with the full-length protein. This suggests that either a second interaction domain exists outside of CR2, or that other regions of the protein stabilize the association of the CR2-domain with histones.
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Since the GST-histone tails used in these experiments had been purified from bacteria, and therefore contained no post-translational modifications, the histone-acetyltransferases (HATs) p300 and PCAF were used to differentially modify the N-terminal domains of the histones. In order to do so, the acetyltransferase domains of p300 and PCAF fused to GST were bacterially expressed and incubated with individual histone tails. Radioactive labeled acetyl-CoA was used as an acetyl-donor. Figure 7A depicts the specificity and intensities with which the different enzymes acetylated the individual substrates. While GST-p300 preferentially modified the N-terminal region of histone H4 followed by H2A and H3, GST-PCAF was autoacetylated (35) (seen in all lanes at top of the figure) and acetylated mainly the histone tails of H3 and to a lesser extent H4.
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We next investigated whether this modification altered the binding capacity to p66
and p66ß. Using a modified GST pull-down assay, one set of histone-substrates was acetylated by GST-p300 or GST-PCAF and another set remained unmodified. Both sets were subsequently bound to Sepharose beads and incubated with [35S]labeled p66
or p66ß. Acetylation by p300 resulted in a considerable reduction of retained p66
or p66ß on the N-terminal domains of histone H4, H2A and to a lesser degree H3 (Figure 7B and C). The association of both p66-paralogs with the histone tails was also decreased upon acetylation by the HAT-domain of PCAF. Corresponding to the acetylation specificity of this acetyltransferase, the affinity for histone H3 was reduced to a greater extent than for H4, whereas the unmodified histone tails all bound similarly. We also found an association of both p66-proteins with PCAF. Upon auto-acetylation of E.coli expressed PCAF, the interaction with either p66 is not reduced, rather slightly increased (see Supplementary Data). This suggests that p66 loss of binding upon acetylation of histone tails is likely not due to an unspecific charge effect of the acetyl groups since in the case of PCAF acetylation the reverse effect is seen. Thus, the affinities of p66
and p66ß for the N-terminal histone regions are dependent on the modification state; acetylation of histone tails specifically reduces the association with both p66-proteins.
Nuclear distribution of p66
and p66ß depends on CR2 and MBD2
We have shown an in vitro association of p66
and p66ß with the N-terminal regions of histone tails and have identified the conserved region 2 as a potential interaction domain. To substantiate these findings in vivo, we constructed several GFP-fused deletion constructs of both p66-paralogs and analyzed their localization in NIH 3T3 cells. Full-length p66-GFP fusions as well as C-terminal deletions of up to the CR2-domain of p66
(p66
1482) or p66ß (p66ß 1489) show a speckled distribution in the nucleus (Figure 8). However, deletion of the CR2-domain (p66
1348, p66ß 1344) resulted in an overall loss of the speckled pattern and a uniform localization within the nucleus. The wild-type distribution of both paralogs is therefore dependent on CR2.
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Because the CR1 domain of p66
and p66ß has already been shown to interact with MBD2 and a point mutation in the CR1 domain of p66
(p66
K149R) disrupts MBD2-binding (see above), we used this mutant to test the MBD2-dependent distribution of p66
. Transfection of a GFP-p66
K149R construct into NIH 3T3 cells resulted in a diffuse nuclear localization. In order to provide further evidence that the subnuclear localization of p66
and p66ß depends on the presence of MBD2, we compared the localization of GFP-p66
and GFP-p66ß in MBD-containing fibroblasts versus MBD2/ fibroblast cells (Figure 9). Similar to the previously described distribution in HEK 293 cells, fibroblasts containing MBD2 displayed a speckled nuclear localization of both GFP-p66-proteins. Interestingly, MBD2 knock-out cells lacked the speckled pattern but displayed a diffuse nuclear distribution. Taken together, these results are in agreement with the notion of a dual mechanism that is responsible for the localization of p66
and p66ß. The interaction with MBD2 via the CR1-domain as well as the presence of the CR2 simultaneously determine the distribution of the p66-paralogs.
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| DISCUSSION |
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Regulation of gene expression is largely influenced by DNA methylation, histone modifications and chromatin structure. The repressor complex Mi-2/NuRD is thought to be targeted to methylated DNA via MBD2 thereby generating the MeCP1 complex. The MeCP1 complex is composed of 10 subunits including the methyl binding proteins MBD2 and MBD3, the histone deacetylases HDAC1 and HDAC2, as well as two proteins of 66 and 68 kDa. Although these p66/68 components were originally hypothesized to be a single protein possibly differing in a post-translational modification, we have previously demonstrated that two homologous but distinct p66
and p66ß proteins exist in humans (25).
Here we show that, when tethered to DNA, transcriptional repression by p66
or p66ß does not require the methyl binding protein MBD2. Overexpression of each p66-protein augments repression by MBD2 and knock-down of either p66-paralogs reduces repression by MBD2. Combined knock-down of both p66-proteins decreases the repression by MBD2 further. However, since repression by MBD2 is also mediated by proteins other than the Mi-2/NuRD complex, a complete relief of repression would not be expected using this approach. These results indicate that the repressive function of MBD2 is mediated by the paralogous p66-proteins and that this repression might depend on a synergistic function with both p66
and p66ß being present simultaneously in a single complex.
The CR1-region of p66ß has previously been shown to interact with MBD2 and to be responsible for the integration of p66ß within the MeCP1 complex (32). By mutating CR1 of p66
, we identified a critical amino acid essential for the interaction of p66
with MBD2 in vivo. Our observation that this point mutant was unable to enhance MBD2-mediated repression is in agreement with its inability to associate with MBD2. Additionally, transfection of a GFP-fused mutant resulted in a loss of the speckled nuclear localization observed with the wild-type protein. Therefore, as is the case with p66ß, the CR1 of p66
is required for the association of p66
with MBD2. An analysis of the distribution of GFP-p66-proteins in the absence of MBD2, which revealed a diffuse nuclear distribution as well, further supports this view. MBD2 is therefore essential for the correct nuclear localization of p66
as well as of p66ß, and very likely recruits both proteins to their target sites via CR1.
Chromatin and histone tail association of Mi-2/NuRD has been documented (36,37). Histone H3 K4 methylation prevents NuRD binding, whereas H3 K9 methylation does not (37). Here, we demonstrated that both p66-paralogs bind directly to histone N-terminal tails in vitro, and that for p66
this association requires CR2. The localization of p66ß has previously been shown to depend on CR2 (32). As discussed below, histone tail interaction may be important in mediating a two-interaction binding mode by DNA bound MBD2 as well as by histone tail interaction. In such a scenario, histone tail interaction may either be charge driven or may require specific binding surfaces or both. Interestingly, acetylation of histone N-termini by the histone acetyltransferases p300 or PCAF abrogated the association with the p66-proteins. The acetylation pattern by PCAF corresponds to reports by other groups in which the N-terminus of histone H3 (H3 K14) is preferentially modified over histone H4 (H4 K8) (38,39). Acetylation by p300 is known to differ from PCAF in that H2A is modified at lysine 5 (H2A K5), H3 at K14 and K18, and histone H4 at K5 and K8 (38,39). Although p300 has been reported to acetylate H2B as well, we were not able to detect acetylation of this histone. This might be explained by the fact that our experiments utilized the HAT-domain of the enzyme rather than the full-length enzyme. In any case, acetylation of the core histones (H2A, H2B, H3, H4) results in a decondensed chromatin structure and correlates with transcriptional activity. Again, loss of interaction upon acetylation of histone tails may be charge driven although acetylation per se does not reduce p66 binding as shown for the interaction with acteylated PCAF. A scenario in which a DNA bound repressor, that mediates chromatin histone deacetylation by initial unstable recruitment of a corepressor complex, has recently been shown for the SMRT/N-CoR complex (40). In this case, a stable two-interaction binding mediated by the DNA bound factor as well as by histone tails is observed only after deacetylation. Here, we suggest a similar two-interaction mode of the Mi-2/NuRD complex, which requires DNA binding by MBD2 as well as histone tail binding. The CR2-mediated speckled nuclear distribution may be caused by an unknown function of CR2 or histone tail binding of CR2 is involved in targeting of p66 as well. In such a scenario, a forward feedback loop can be envisaged, with a stable chromatin association taking place only after deacetylation of the histones has occurred. Such a stable Mi-2/NuRD binding might also facilitate a spreading of inactive deacetylated chromatin into active chromatin regions. Alternatively, histone association may play a role during remodeling rather during targeting of the complex to chromatin.
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Supplementary Data are available at NAR Online.
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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The authors would like to thank Sonja Sahner for excellent technical help, Drs C. Wu, A. Baniahmad, S. Berger and A. Bird for materials and the DFG for support (GRK 370). Funding to pay the Open Access publication charges for this article was provided by the DFG.
Conflict of interest statement. None declared.
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