Coordinated regulation of AIB1 transcriptional activity by sumoylation and phosphorylation

AIB1, a member of the steroid receptor coactivator ( SRC) family that participates in gene transcriptional activation by nuclear receptors and other transcription factors, is required for animal growth and reproductive development and implicated in breast carcinogenesis. The mechanisms underlying the AIB1 pleiotropic functions are not fully understood and neither is the regulation of its activity. Here, we showed that AIB1 was a sumoylated protein and the sumoylation attenuated the transactivation activity of AIB1, which is in contrast to the sumoylation of its paralogs, GRIP1 and SRC-1. The transactivation activity of AIB1 is enhanced by its phosphorylation by several kinases, including mitogen-activated protein kinase. We demonstrated in this report that estrogen treatment led to an increased phosphorylation and decreased sumoylation of AIB1 and that the sumoylation coordinated with phosphorylation in regulating the transcriptional activity of AIB1, providing a mechanism for post-translational modifications in regulating the transcriptional output of AIB1.