PUBLICATION

p53 directly suppresses BNIP3 expression to protect against hypoxia-induced cell death

Authors
Feng, X., Liu, X., Zhang, W., and Xiao, W.
ID
ZDB-PUB-110803-20
Date
2011
Source
The EMBO journal   30(16): 3397-415 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Feng, Xi, Xiao, Wuhan, Zhang, Wei
Keywords
apoptosis, BNIP3, hypoxia, p53, zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Autophagy
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Cell Hypoxia/physiology*
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53/physiology*
  • Apoptosis/physiology*
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins/physiology
  • Binding Sites
  • Membrane Proteins/physiology*
  • Gene Expression Regulation/physiology
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Humans
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
  • Cell Line
  • Gene Knockdown Techniques
  • Response Elements
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Zebrafish/embryology
  • Animals
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins/physiology*
  • Zebrafish Proteins/physiology*
PubMed
21792176 Full text @ EMBO J.
Abstract
Hypoxia stabilizes the tumour suppressor p53, allowing it to function primarily as a transrepressor; however, the function of p53 during hypoxia remains unclear. In this study, we showed that p53 suppressed BNIP3 expression by directly binding to the p53-response element motif and recruiting corepressor mSin3a to the BNIP3 promoter. The DNA-binding site of p53 must remain intact for the protein to suppress the BNIP3 promoter. In addition, taking advantage of zebrafish as an in vivo model, we confirmed that zebrafish nip3a, a homologous gene of mammalian BNIP3, was indeed induced by hypoxia and p53 mutation/knockdown enhanced nip3a expression under hypoxia resulted in cell death enhancement in p53 mutant embryos. Furthermore, p53 protected against hypoxia-induced cell death mediated by p53 suppression of BNIP3 as illustrated by p53 knockdown/loss assays in both human cell lines and zebrafish model, which is in contrast to the traditional pro-apoptotic role of p53. Our results suggest a novel function of p53 in hypoxia-induced cell death, leading to the development of new treatments for ischaemic heart disease and cerebral stoke.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping