Under conditions of genotoxic stress, human p53 activates the apoptotic effectors BAX or BAK to result in mitochondrial outer-membrane permeabilization and apoptosis. Antiapoptotic BCL-2 family member BCL-xL opposes this activity by sequestering cyto ...
Under conditions of genotoxic stress, human p53 activates the apoptotic effectors BAX or BAK to result in mitochondrial outer-membrane permeabilization and apoptosis. Antiapoptotic BCL-2 family member BCL-xL opposes this activity by sequestering cytosolic p53 via association with its DNA-binding domain, an interaction enhanced by p53 tetramerization. Here we characterized the BCL-xL-p53 complex by NMR spectroscopy and modulated it through mutagenesis to determine the relative contributions of BCL-xL's interactions with p53 or other BCL-2 family proteins to the BCL-xL-dependent inhibition of UV irradiation-induced apoptosis. Under our experimental conditions, one-third of the antiapoptotic activity of BCL-xL was mediated by p53 sequestration and the remaining two-thirds through sequestration of proapoptotic BCL-2 family members. Our studies define the contributions of cytosolic p53 to UV irradiation-induced apoptosis and provide opportunities to explore its contributions to other p53-dependent apoptotic signaling pathways.
Organizational Affiliation:
1] Department of Structural Biology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. [2] Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.,Department of Structural Biology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.,Department of Immunology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
Download Mendeley
Download Endnote
