Inhibition of cortical neuron differentiation by Groucho/TLE1 requires interaction with WRPW, but not Eh1, repressor peptides

In both invertebrates and vertebrates, transcriptional co-repressors of the Groucho/transducin-like Enhancer of split (Gro/TLE) family regulate a number of developmental mechanisms, including neuronal differentiation. The pleiotropic activity of Gro/TLE depends on context-specific interactions with a variety of DNA-binding proteins. Most of those factors engage Gro/TLE through two different types of short peptide motifs, the WRP(W/Y) tetrapeptide and the Engrailed homology 1 (Eh1) sequence (FXIXXIL). The aim of this study was to elucidate the contribution of WRP(W/Y) and Eh1 motifs to mammalian Gro/TLE anti-neurogenic activity. Here we describe point mutations within the C-terminal WD40 repeat domain of Gro/TLE1 that do not perturb protein folding but disrupt the ability of Gro/TLE1 to inhibit the differentiation of cerebral cortex neural progenitor cells into neurons. One of those mutations, L743F, selectively blocks binding to Hes1, an anti-neurogenic basic helix-loop-helix protein that harbors a WRPW motif. In contrast, the L743F mutation does not disrupt binding to Engrailed1 and FoxG1, which both contain Eh1 motifs, nor to Tcf3, which binds to the Gro/TLE N terminus. These results demonstrate that the recruitment of transcription factors harboring WRP(W/Y) tetrapeptides is essential to the antineurogenic function of Gro/TLE1.