Journal
CELL CYCLE
Volume 9, Issue 20, Pages 4068-4076Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
DOI: 10.4161/cc.9.20.13595
Keywords
p53; tumor supressor; transcription factor; DNA binding; cell cycle arrest apoptosis
Categories
Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [KFO210 STI 182/3-1]
- Deutsche Krebshilfe [107904]
- LOEWE
- von Behring-Rontgen-Stiftung [57-0012]
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The tumor suppressor p53 provides exquisite protection from cancer by balancing cell survival and death in response to stress. Sustained stress or irreparable damage trigger p53's killer functions to permanently eliminate genetically-altered cells as a potential source of cancer. To prevent the unnecessary loss of cells that could cause premature aging as a result of stem cell attrition, the killer functions of p53 are tightly regulated and balanced against protector functions that promote damage repair and support survival in response to low stress or mild damage. In molecular terms these p53-based cell fate decisions involve protein interactions with cofactors and modifying enzymes, which modulate the activation of distinct sets of p53 target genes. In addition, we demonstrate that part of this regulation occurs at the level of DNA binding. We show that the killer function of p53 requires the four DNA binding domains within the p53 tetramer to interact with one another. These intermolecular interactions enable cooperative binding of p53 to less perfect response elements in the genome, which are present in many target genes essential for apoptosis. Modulating p53 interactions within the tetramer could therefore present a novel promising strategy to fine-tune p53-based cell fate decisions.
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