DNA damage-induced activation of ATM promotes β-TRCP-mediated Mdm2 ubiquitination and destruction

Oncotarget. 2012 Sep;3(9):1026-35. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.640.

Abstract

The Mdm2 oncoprotein promotes p53 ubiquitination and destruction. Yet, exact molecular mechanisms of Mdm2 destruction itself, under DNA damaging conditions, remain unclear. Recently, we identified SCFβ-TRCP as a novel E3 ligase that targets Mdm2 for ubiquitination and destruction in a Casein Kinase Iδ (CKIδ)-dependent manner. However, it remains elusive how the β-TRCP/CKIδ/Mdm2 signaling axis is regulated by DNA damage signals to govern p53 activity. Consistent with previous studies, we found that inactivation of the Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM) kinase, in turn, impaired DNA damage-induced Mdm2 destruction. Although phosphorylation of Mdm2 at Ser395 (an ATM phosphorylation site) facilitated Mdm2 interaction with β-TRCP, Ser395A-Mdm2 was degraded non-distinguishably from WT-Mdm2 by SCFβ-TRCP upon DNA damaging treatments. This indicates that in addition to phosphorylating Mdm2 at Ser395, ATM may govern Mdm2 stability through other unknown mechanisms. We further demonstrated that DNA damage-induced activation of ATM directly phosphorylated CKIδ at two well-conserved S/TQ sites, which promotes CKIδ nuclear localization to increase CKIδ-mediated phosphorylation of Mdm2, thereby facilitating subsequent Mdm2 ubiquitination by SCFβ-TRCP. Our studies provide a molecular mechanism of how ATM could govern DNA damage-induced destruction of Mdm2 in part by phosphorylating both Mdm2 and CKIδ to modulate SCFβ-TRCP-mediated Mdm2 ubiquitination. Given the pivotal role of Mdm2 in the negative regulation of p53, this work will also provide a rationale for developing CKIδ or ATM agonists as anti-cancer agents.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated Proteins
  • Casein Kinase Idelta / metabolism
  • Cell Cycle Proteins / genetics
  • Cell Cycle Proteins / metabolism*
  • DNA Damage*
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / genetics
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism*
  • Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Phosphorylation
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / genetics
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / metabolism*
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2 / genetics
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2 / metabolism*
  • Signal Transduction
  • Tumor Suppressor Proteins / genetics
  • Tumor Suppressor Proteins / metabolism*
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / metabolism
  • Ubiquitination
  • beta-Transducin Repeat-Containing Proteins / genetics
  • beta-Transducin Repeat-Containing Proteins / metabolism*

Substances

  • Cell Cycle Proteins
  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • Tumor Suppressor Proteins
  • beta-Transducin Repeat-Containing Proteins
  • MDM2 protein, human
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases
  • ATM protein, human
  • Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated Proteins
  • Casein Kinase Idelta
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases