Association of human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 E6 proteins with p53

Human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) is a DNA tumor virus that is associated with human anogenital cancers and encodes two transforming proteins, E6 and E7. The E7 protein has been shown to bind to the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor gene product, pRB. This study shows that the E6 protein of HPV-16 is capable of binding to the cellular p53 protein. The ability of the E6 proteins from different human papillomaviruses to form complexes with p53 was assayed and found to correlate with the in vivo clinical behavior and the in vitro transforming activity of these different papillomaviruses. The wild-type p53 protein has tumor suppressor properties and has also been found in association with large T antigen and the E1B 55-kilodalton protein in cells transformed by SV40 and by adenovirus type 5, respectively, providing further evidence that the human papillomaviruses, the adenoviruses, and SV40 may effect similar cellular pathways in transformation.     

Integration of TGF-beta and Ras/MAPK signaling through p53 phosphorylation

During development and tissue homeostasis, cells must integrate different signals. We investigated how cell behavior is controlled by the combined activity of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) and receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) signaling, whose integration mechanism is unknown. We find that RTK/Ras/MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) activity induces p53 N-terminal phosphorylation, enabling the interaction of p53 with the TGF-beta-activated Smads. This mechanism confines mesoderm specification in Xenopus embryos and promotes TGF-beta cytostasis in human cells. These data indicate a mechanism to allow extracellular cues to specify the TGF-beta gene-expression program.     

Inhibition of GTPase activating protein stimulation of Ras-p21 GTPase by the Krev-1 gene product

Krev-1 is known to suppress transformation by ras. However, the mechanism of the suppression is unclear. The protein product of Krev-1, Rap1A-p21, is identical to Ras-p21 proteins in the region where interaction with guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) activating protein (GAP) is believed to occur. Therefore, the ability of GAP to interact with Rap1A-p21 was tested. Rap1A-p21 was not activated by GAP but bound tightly to GAP and was an effective competitive inhibitor of GAP-mediated Ras-GTPase activity. Binding of GAP to Rap1A-p21 was strictly guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-dependent. The ability of Rap1A-p21 to bind tightly to GAP may account for Krev-1 suppression of transformation by ras. This may occur by preventing interaction of GAP with Ras-p21 or with other cellular proteins necessary for GAP-mediated Ras GTPase activity.     

The role of individual cysteine residues in the structure and function of the v-sis gene product

The v-sis oncogene encodes a platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-related product whose transforming activity is mediated by its functional interaction with the PDGF receptor. PDGF, as well as processed forms of the v-sis gene product, is a disulfide-linked dimer with eight conserved cysteine residues in the minimum region necessary for biologic activity. Site-directed mutagenesis of the v-sis gene revealed that each conserved cysteine residue was required directly or indirectly for disulfide-linked dimer formation. However, substitution of serine for cysteine codons at any of four positions had no detrimental effect on transforming activity of the encoded v-sis protein. These results establish that interchain disulfide bonds are not essential in order for this protein to act as a functional ligand for the PDGF receptor. The remaining four substitutions of serine for cysteine each inactivated transforming function of the molecule. In each case this was associated with loss of a conformation shown to involve intramolecular disulfide bonds. These studies provide insight into the role of individual cysteine residues in determining the structure of the sis/PDGF molecule critical for biological activity.     

Cellular transforming genes

Cellular genes potentially capable of inducing oncogenic transformation have been identified by homology to the transforming genes of retroviruses and by the biological activity of cellular DNA's in transfection assays. DNA's of various tumors induce transformation with high efficiencies, indicating that oncogenesis can involve dominant genetic alterations resulting in activation of cellular transforming genes. The identification and characterization of cellular transforming genes and their possible involvement in naturally occurring cancers, is discussed.     

Genetic and pharmacological suppression of oncogenic mutations in ras genes of yeast and humans

The activity of an oncoprotein and the secretion of a pheromone can be affected by an unusual protein modification. Specifically, posttranslational modification of yeast a-factor and Ras protein requires an intermediate of the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway. This modification is apparently essential for biological activity. Studies of yeast mutants blocked in sterol biosynthesis demonstrated that the membrane association and biological activation of the yeast Ras2 protein require mevalonate, a precursor of sterols and other isoprenes such as farnesyl pyrophosphate. Furthermore, drugs that inhibit mevalonate biosynthesis blocked the in vivo action of oncogenic derivatives of human Ras protein in the Xenopus oocyte assay. The same drugs and mutations also prevented the posttranslational processing and secretion of yeast a-factor, a peptide that is farnesylated. Thus, the mevalonate requirement for Ras activation may indicate that attachment of a mevalonate-derived (isoprenoid) moiety to Ras proteins is necessary for membrane association and biological function. These observations establish a connection between the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway and transformation by the ras oncogene and offer a novel pharmacological approach to investigating, and possibly controlling, ras-mediated malignant transformations.     

Mammalian and yeast ras gene products: biological function in their heterologous systems

Activated versions of ras genes have been found in various types of malignant tumors. The normal versions of these genes are found in organisms as diverse as mammals and yeasts. Yeast cells that lack their functional ras genes, RASSC-1 and RASSC-2, are ordinarily nonviable. They have now been shown to remain viable if they carry a mammalian rasH gene. In addition, yeast-mammalian hybrid genes and a deletion mutant yeast RASSC-1 gene were shown to induce morphologic transformation of mouse NIH 3T3 cells when the genes had a point mutation analogous to one that increases the transforming activity of mammalian ras genes. The results establish the functional relevance of the yeast system to the genetics and biochemistry of cellular transformation induced by mammalian ras genes.     

Identification of small clusters of divergent amino acids that mediate the opposing effects of ras and Krev-1

Krev-1 is an anti-oncogene that was originally identified by its ability to induce morphologic reversion of ras-transformed cells that continue to express the ras gene. The Krev-1-encoded protein is structurally related to Ras proteins. The biological activities of a series of ras-Krev-1 chimeras were studied to test the hypothesis that Krev-1 may directly interfere with a ras function. The ras-specific and Krev-1-specific amino acids immediately surrounding residues 32 to 44, which are identical between the two proteins, determined whether the protein induced cellular transformation or suppressed ras transformation. Because this region in Ras proteins has been implicated in effector function, the results suggest that Krev-1 suppresses ras-induced transformation by interfering with interaction of Ras with its effector.     

Nucleotide sequence of the oncogene encoding the p21 transforming protein of Kirsten murine sarcoma virus

The transforming protein ofKirsten murine sarcoma virus (Ki-MuSV) is a virally encoded 21-kilodalton protein called p21 kis. The sequences encoding p21 kis were genetically localized to a 1.3-kilobase segment near the 5' end of the viral genome by assaying the capacity of a series of defined deletion mutants of molecularly cloned Ki-MuSV DNA to induce focal transformation of mouse cells. Nucleotide sequencing of a portion of this region has led to the identification of an open reading frame of 567 nucleotides coding for p21 kis protein.     

An unusual form of lipid linkage to the CD45 peptide

Some protein kinases and phosphatases are myristoylated on their amino terminus, which perhaps contributes to subcellular localization or regulation. Glycoprotein CD45, a hematopoietic tyrosine phosphatase, was examined for fatty acid content. The CD45 protein incorporated [3H]myristate, but little [3H]palmitate. The label was not metabolized and reincorporated into amino acids or saccharides, as revealed by peptide maps of CD45 labeled with [3H]myristate, 14C-labeled amino acids, [35S]methionine, or 125I, and glycosidase treatments, respectively. The myristate label was resistant to mild alkaline methanolysis and was found in fatty acid and sphingosine, indicating an unusual form of lipid attachment to CD45.     

Phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein by viral protein with cyclin-dependent kinase function

As obligate intracellular parasites, viruses expertly modify cellular processes to facilitate their replication and spread, often by encoding genes that mimic the functions of cellular proteins while lacking regulatory features that modify their activity. We show that the human cytomegalovirus UL97 protein has activities similar to cellular cyclin-cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) complexes. UL97 phosphorylated and inactivated the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor, stimulated cell cycle progression in mammalian cells, and rescued proliferation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae lacking CDK activity. UL97 is not inhibited by the CDK inhibitor p21 and lacks amino acid residues conserved in the CDKs that permit the attenuation of kinase activity. Thus, UL97 represents a functional ortholog of cellular CDKs that is immune from normal CDK control mechanisms.     

A cytosolic protein catalyzes the release of GDP from p21ras

The rate of release of guanine nucleotides from the ras proteins (Ras) is extremely slow in the presence of Mg2+. It seemed likely, therefore that a factor might exist to accelerate the release of guanosine diphosphate (GDP), and hence the exchange of GDP for guanosine triphosphate (GTP). Such a factor has now been discovered in rat brain cytosol. Brain cytosol was found to catalyze, by orders of magnitude, the release of guanine nucleotides from recombinant v-H-Ras protein bound with [alpha-32P]GDP. This effect occurred even in the presence of a large excess of Mg2+, but was destroyed by heat or by incubation of the cytosol for an hour at 37 degrees C in the absence of phosphatase inhibitors. The effect was observed with either v-H-Ras or c-H-Ras, but not with p25rab3A, a small G protein with about 30% similarity to Ras. The effect could not be mimicked by addition of recombinant Ras-GAP or purified GEF, a guanine nucleotide exchange factor involved in the regulation of eukaryotic protein synthesis. By gel filtration chromatography, the factor appears to possess a molecular size between 100,000 and 160,000 daltons. This protein (Ras-guanine nucleotide-releasing factor, or Ras-GRF) may be involved in the activation of p21ras.     

Malignant activation of a K-ras oncogene in lung carcinoma but not in normal tissue of the same patient

A single genetic alteration, a guanine-to-cytosine transversion, is responsible for the acquisition of malignant properties by K-ras genes of two human tumor cell lines established from carcinomas of the bladder (A1698) and lung (A2182). As a consequence, arginine instead of the normal glycine is incorporated into the K-ras-coded p21 proteins at amino acid position 12. This mutation creates a restriction enzyme polymorphism that can be used to screen human cells for transforming K-ras genes. This approach was used to identify the mutational event responsible for the malignant activation of a K-ras oncogene in a squamous cell lung carcinoma of a 66-year-old man; this point mutation was not present in either the normal bronchial or parenchymal tissue or in the blood lymphocytes. Hence, malignant activation of a ras oncogene appears to be specifically associated with the development of a human neoplasm.     

Regulation of Ras-GAP and the neurofibromatosis-1 gene product by eicosanoids

Ras-GAP (GTPase activating protein) is a regulatory protein that stimulates the intrinsic guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) activity of the proto-oncogene product p21ras. A domain of the neurofibromatosis gene product (NF1) that has sequence similarity to the catalytic domain of Ras-GAP and to yeast IRA gene products also has a specific stimulatory activity toward p21ras GTPase. Arachidonic acid and phosphatidic acid inactivate GAP, but no agents have been identified that stimulate GAP and thereby switch p21ras off. With the use of recombinant Ha-c-Ras and Ras-GAP, NF1, and GAP catalytic domains, it was found that prostaglandins PGF2 alpha and PGA2 stimulated Ras-GAP and that prostacyclin PGI2 inhibited Ras-GAP. The stimulatory effect of PGF2 alpha was saturable and structure-specific and competed with the inhibitory effect of arachidonic acid. Arachidonic acid also inhibited the catalytic activity of NF1, but prostaglandins were not stimulatory. These results suggest a mechanism for the allosteric control of Ras function through the modulation of arachidonate metabolism.     

Expression of a platelet-derived growth factor-like protein in simian sarcoma virus transformed cells

The near identity of the partial amino acid sequence of human platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and that predicted for p28sis, the putative transforming protein of the simian sarcoma virus (SSV), suggests expression of a growth factor activity may be central for transformation by SSV. It is now reported that SSV-transformed cells but not control cells contain a growth factor activity that is identical to PDGF in immunoassay, in mitogenic dose response, and in specific mitogenic activity. The protein immunoprecipitated by antiserum to human PDGF has an apparent molecular weight of 20,000, identical to that of p20sis, the putative intracellular degradation product of p28sis. The results support the concept that expression of a PDGF-like molecule, which appears to be the product of the viral-sis gene, is responsible for the abnormal regulation of growth is SSV-transformed cells.     

A cytoplasmic protein stimulates normal N-ras p21 GTPase, but does not affect oncogenic mutants

The role of guanine nucleotides in ras p21 function was determined by using the ability of p21 protein to induce maturation of Xenopus oocytes as a quantitative assay for biological activity. Two oncogenic mutant human N-ras p21 proteins, Asp12 and Val12, actively induced maturation, whereas normal Gly12 p21 was relatively inactive in this assay. Both mutant proteins were found to be associated with guanosine triphosphate (GTP) in vivo. In contrast, Gly12 p21 was predominantly guanosine diphosphate (GDP)-bound because of a dramatic stimulation of Gly12 p21-associated guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) activity. A cytoplasmic protein was shown to be responsible for this increase in activity. This protein stimulated GTP hydrolysis by purified Gly12 p21 more than 200-fold in vitro, but had no effect on Asp12 or Val12 mutants. A similar factor could be detected in extracts from mammalian cells. It thus appears that, in Xenopus oocytes, this protein maintains normal p21 in a biologically inactive, GDP-bound state through its effect on GTPase activity. Furthermore, it appears that the major effect of position 12 mutations is to prevent this protein from stimulating p21 GTPase activity, thereby allowing these mutants to remain in the active GTP-bound state.     

Enzymatic coupling of cholesterol intermediates to a mating pheromone precursor and to the ras protein

The post-translational processing of the yeast a-mating pheromone precursor, Ras proteins, nuclear lamins, and some subunits of trimeric G proteins requires a set of complex modifications at their carboxyl termini. This processing includes three steps: prenylation of a cysteine residue, proteolytic processing, and carboxymethylation. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the product of the DPR1-RAM1 gene participates in this type of processing. Through the use of an in vitro assay with peptide substrates modeled after a presumptive a-mating pheromone precursor, it was discovered that mutations in DPR1-RAM1 cause a defect in the prenylation reaction. It was further shown that DPR1-RAM1 encodes an essential and limiting component of a protein prenyltransferase. These studies also implied a fixed order of the three processing steps shared by prenylated proteins: prenylation, proteolysis, then carboxymethylation. Because the yeast protein prenyltransferase could also prenylate human H-ras p21 precursor, the human DPR1-RAM1 analogue may be a useful target for anticancer chemotherapy.     

Different tumor-derived p53 mutants exhibit distinct biological activities

In its wild-type form, the protein p53 can interfere with neoplastic processes. Tumor-derived cells often express mutant p53. Full-length mutant forms of p53 isolated so far from transformed mouse cells exhibit three common properties in vitro: loss of transformation-suppressing activity, gain of pronounced transforming potential, and ability to bind the heat shock protein cognate hsc70. A tumor-derived mouse p53 variant is now described, whose site of mutation corresponds to a hot spot for p53 in human tumors. While absolutely nonsuppressing, it is only weakly transforming and exhibits no detectable hsc70 binding. The data suggest that the ability of a p53 mutant to bind endogenous p53 is not the sole determinant of its oncogenic potential. The data also support the existence of gain-of-function p53 mutants.