Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 103, Issue 49, Pages 18609-18614Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0604844103
Keywords
aggregation; cell death; transamidation
Categories
Funding
- NIGMS NIH HHS [GM 61762, R01 GM061762] Funding Source: Medline
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Opposing cellular responses are typically regulated by distinct sets of genes. However, tissue transglutaminase (TGase) provides an interesting example of a single gene product that has been implicated both in affording protection against cellular insults as well as in promoting cell death. Here, we shed some light on how these conflicting activities might be manifested by demonstrating that alternative transcripts of TGase differentially affect cell viability. We show that although the full-length TGase protein affords strong protection against cell death signals, a shorter version of TGase that is truncated at the 3' end, and thus called TGase-short (TGase-S), is cytotoxic. The apoptotic activity of TGase-S is not dependent on its transamidation activity because the mutation of a cysteine residue that is essential for catalyzing this reaction does not compromise the ability of TGase-S to induce cell death. Intriguingly, TGase-S undergoes inappropriate oligomer formation in cells before cell death, suggesting a novel mechanism for the apoptotic effects of this protein.
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