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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 Sep 13;91(19):8940–8944. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.19.8940

Relief of p53-mediated transcriptional repression by the adenovirus E1B 19-kDa protein or the cellular Bcl-2 protein.

Y Shen 1, T Shenk 1
PMCID: PMC44722  PMID: 8090749

Abstract

The p53 tumor suppressor gene product is a transcriptional regulatory protein. It activates transcription from promoters that contain a p53 DNA binding site but represses many promoters that lack its binding site. High-level expression of wild-type p53 can induce apoptosis in certain cell types, and this activity can be blocked by the adenovirus E1B 19-kDa oncoprotein or by the cellular Bcl-2 oncoprotein. Here we report that p53-mediated repression of promoters that lack a p53 binding site is abrogated by the E1B 19-kDa protein or Bcl-2 oncoprotein. In contrast, transcriptional activation by p53 still occurs in the presence of either protein. The fact that two oncoproteins capable of preventing p53-mediated apoptosis also block transcriptional repression by p53 raises the possibility that p53 might induce apoptosis, at least in part, by repressing transcription.

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Selected References

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