"Intrinsic disorder controls the function of p53 and other cancer-associated IDPs"
p53 is a tumor suppressor and cell cycle regulator that is activated by protein-protein interactions and posttranslational modifications (PTMs). Deletion or mutation of p53 can dramatically increase susceptibility to cancer. p53 is also an intrinsically disordered protein (IDP). IDPs are highly dynamic, do not form stable tertiary structures, and contain variable amounts of transient secondary structure. IDP domains are hotspots for PTMs and they frequently mediate protein-protein interactions through coupled folding and binding. IDP domains that interact with other proteins can contain defined levels of transient secondary structure that resemble their complex-bound structure11. These levels of residual structure can modulate binding affinities with other proteins by tuning the change in conformational entropy that occurs during the coupled folding and binding reaction. We recently showed that levels of residual helicity in the disordered p53 transcriptional activation domain (p53TAD) controlled the binding affinity to the E3 ubiquitin ligase Mdm2, both in vitro and inside living cells. The levels of residual helicity in free p53TAD were controlled by conserved prolines flanking the Mdm2 binding site. Mutating these prolines to alanine resulted in higher p53TAD helicity and stronger Mdm2 binding. This stronger Mdm2 binding inhibits phosphorylation of p53 and leads directly to more rapid degradation of p53 following DNA damage. Lower levels of p53 reduce target gene expression and prevent cell cycle arrest. Our results indicate that precise levels of intrinsic disorder and residual helicity are necessary for regulating the p53-signaling network and changing the levels of disorder will modify the effects of phosphorylation and other PTMs. We are currently investigating whether changing the levels of disorder for other cancer associated IDPs like the myeoblastosis transcription factor family member, cMyb, and the mixed lineage leukemia protein, MLL, control their function.
Date: 7 July 2016, 13:00 (Thursday, 11th week, Trinity 2016)
Venue: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Building, off South Parks Road OX1 3QU
Venue Details: Biochemistry Seminar Room
Speaker: Gary Daughdrill (University of South Florida)
Organising department: Department of Biochemistry
Organiser: Professor Colin Kleanthous (Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: colin.kleanthous@bioch.ox.ac.uk
Host: Professor Colin Kleanthous (Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford)
Part of: Biochemistry Department Seminar
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Carla Bramble