Sumoylation of the progesterone receptor and of the steroid receptor coactivator SRC-1

SUMO-1 (small ubiquitin-like modifier) conjugation regulates the subcellular localization, stability, and activity of a variety of proteins. We show here that SUMO-1 overexpression markedly enhances progesterone receptor (PR)-mediated gene transcription. PR undergoes a sumoylation at lysine 388 located in its N-terminal domain. However, sumoylation of the receptor is not responsible for enhanced transcription because substitution of its target lysine did not abolish the effect of SUMO-1 and even converted the receptor into a slightly more active transactivator. Furthermore estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha)-driven transcription is also enhanced by SUMO-1 overexpression contrasting with the absence of sumoylation of this receptor. We thus analyzed SUMO-1 conjugation to the steroid receptor coactivator SRC-1. We showed that this protein contains two major sites of conjugation at Lys-732 and Lys-774. Sumoylation was shown to increase PR-SRC-1 interaction and to prolong SRC-1 retention in the nucleus. It did not prevent SRC-1 ubiquitinylation and did not exert a clear effect on the stability of the protein. Overexpression of SUMO-1 enhanced PR-mediated gene transcription even in the presence of non-sumoylated mutants of SRC-1. This observation suggests that among the many protein partners involved in steroid hormone-mediated gene regulation several are probably targets of SUMO-1 modification.