Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1994 Jun 7;91(12):5642–5646. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.12.5642

Expansion of CREB's DNA recognition specificity by Tax results from interaction with Ala-Ala-Arg at positions 282-284 near the conserved DNA-binding domain of CREB.

N Adya 1, L J Zhao 1, W Huang 1, I Boros 1, C Z Giam 1
PMCID: PMC44052  PMID: 8202541

Abstract

The transactivator protein of human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I), Tax, forms multiprotein complexes with the ubiquitous transcription factor CREB and the CREB/ATF-1 heterodimer. The interaction between Tax and CREB is highly specific and results in increased binding of the Tax/CREB complexes to the HTLV-I 21-bp repeats. Despite the extensive sequence similarities between CREB and ATF-1, Tax interacts with ATF-1 only marginally. Compared with CREB, Tax/CREB exhibits greatly increased DNA recognition specificity and preferentially assembles on a consensus binding site, GGGGG(T/A)TGACG(T/C)(A/C)TA(T/C)C-CCCC, homologous to the HTLV-I 21-bp repeats. Here we report that Tax affects CREB binding to the Tax-inducible DNA elements by interacting with the basic-leucine zipper (bZip) domain of CREB. We show by domain switching that the basic region in CREB bZip can confer on c-Jun and ATF-1 leucine zippers the ability to interact with Tax in vitro. Mutational analyses further demonstrate that the amino acid residues of CREB critical for Tax/CREB interaction are Ala-Ala-Arg at positions 282-284 (AAR284), immediately upstream of the highly conserved DNA-binding domain (R/K)XX(R/K) N(R/K)XAAXX(S/C)RX(R/K)(K/R) characteristic of all bZip proteins. Specific amino acid substitutions in AAR284 of CREB weakened or abolished Tax/CREB interaction, whereas reciprocal changes in ATF-1 allowed it to interact with Tax. These results support a model in which the specific interaction between Tax and the AAR284 residues near the DNA-binding domain of CREB results in a multiprotein complex with altered DNA recognition property. This protein complex assembles selectively on the viral Tax-responsive 21-bp repeats to augment transcription.

Full text

PDF
5642

Images in this article

5643Image
on p.5643
5644Image
on p.5644
5645Image
on p.5645
5646Image
on p.5646
5646Image
on p.5646

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Cullen B. R. Mechanism of action of regulatory proteins encoded by complex retroviruses. Microbiol Rev. 1992 Sep;56(3):375–394. doi: 10.1128/mr.56.3.375-394.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Derse D. Bovine leukemia virus transcription is controlled by a virus-encoded trans-acting factor and by cis-acting response elements. J Virol. 1987 Aug;61(8):2462–2471. doi: 10.1128/jvi.61.8.2462-2471.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Foulkes N. S., Borrelli E., Sassone-Corsi P. CREM gene: use of alternative DNA-binding domains generates multiple antagonists of cAMP-induced transcription. Cell. 1991 Feb 22;64(4):739–749. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(91)90503-q. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Fujii M., Tsuchiya H., Seiki M. HTLV-1 Tax has distinct but overlapping domains for transcriptional activation and for enhancer specificity. Oncogene. 1991 Dec;6(12):2349–2352. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Fujisawa J., Toita M., Yoshimura T., Yoshida M. The indirect association of human T-cell leukemia virus tax protein with DNA results in transcriptional activation. J Virol. 1991 Aug;65(8):4525–4528. doi: 10.1128/jvi.65.8.4525-4528.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Giam C. Z., Xu Y. L. HTLV-I tax gene product activates transcription via pre-existing cellular factors and cAMP responsive element. J Biol Chem. 1989 Sep 15;264(26):15236–15241. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gonzalez G. A., Yamamoto K. K., Fischer W. H., Karr D., Menzel P., Biggs W., 3rd, Vale W. W., Montminy M. R. A cluster of phosphorylation sites on the cyclic AMP-regulated nuclear factor CREB predicted by its sequence. Nature. 1989 Feb 23;337(6209):749–752. doi: 10.1038/337749a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hai T. W., Liu F., Coukos W. J., Green M. R. Transcription factor ATF cDNA clones: an extensive family of leucine zipper proteins able to selectively form DNA-binding heterodimers. Genes Dev. 1989 Dec;3(12B):2083–2090. doi: 10.1101/gad.3.12b.2083. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hanly S. M., Rimsky L. T., Malim M. H., Kim J. H., Hauber J., Duc Dodon M., Le S. Y., Maizel J. V., Cullen B. R., Greene W. C. Comparative analysis of the HTLV-I Rex and HIV-1 Rev trans-regulatory proteins and their RNA response elements. Genes Dev. 1989 Oct;3(10):1534–1544. doi: 10.1101/gad.3.10.1534. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hoeffler J. P., Meyer T. E., Yun Y., Jameson J. L., Habener J. F. Cyclic AMP-responsive DNA-binding protein: structure based on a cloned placental cDNA. Science. 1988 Dec 9;242(4884):1430–1433. doi: 10.1126/science.2974179. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Kim J., Tzamarias D., Ellenberger T., Harrison S. C., Struhl K. Adaptability at the protein-DNA interface is an important aspect of sequence recognition by bZIP proteins. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1993 May 15;90(10):4513–4517. doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.10.4513. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Paca-Uccaralertkun S., Zhao L. J., Adya N., Cross J. V., Cullen B. R., Boros I. M., Giam C. Z. In vitro selection of DNA elements highly responsive to the human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I transcriptional activator, Tax. Mol Cell Biol. 1994 Jan;14(1):456–462. doi: 10.1128/mcb.14.1.456. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Patel L., Abate C., Curran T. Altered protein conformation on DNA binding by Fos and Jun. Nature. 1990 Oct 11;347(6293):572–575. doi: 10.1038/347572a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Smith D. B., Johnson K. S. Single-step purification of polypeptides expressed in Escherichia coli as fusions with glutathione S-transferase. Gene. 1988 Jul 15;67(1):31–40. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(88)90005-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Sodroski J. G., Rosen C. A., Haseltine W. A. Trans-acting transcriptional activation of the long terminal repeat of human T lymphotropic viruses in infected cells. Science. 1984 Jul 27;225(4660):381–385. doi: 10.1126/science.6330891. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Suzuki T., Fujisawa J. I., Toita M., Yoshida M. The trans-activator tax of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) interacts with cAMP-responsive element (CRE) binding and CRE modulator proteins that bind to the 21-base-pair enhancer of HTLV-1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1993 Jan 15;90(2):610–614. doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.2.610. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Wagner S., Green M. R. HTLV-I Tax protein stimulation of DNA binding of bZIP proteins by enhancing dimerization. Science. 1993 Oct 15;262(5132):395–399. doi: 10.1126/science.8211160. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Weiss M. A., Ellenberger T., Wobbe C. R., Lee J. P., Harrison S. C., Struhl K. Folding transition in the DNA-binding domain of GCN4 on specific binding to DNA. Nature. 1990 Oct 11;347(6293):575–578. doi: 10.1038/347575a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Zhao L. J., Giam C. Z. Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) transcriptional activator, Tax, enhances CREB binding to HTLV-I 21-base-pair repeats by protein-protein interaction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Aug 1;89(15):7070–7074. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.15.7070. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Zhao L. J., Giam C. Z. Interaction of the human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type I (HTLV-I) transcriptional activator Tax with cellular factors that bind specifically to the 21-base-pair repeats in the HTLV-I enhancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Dec 15;88(24):11445–11449. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.24.11445. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES