SUMMARYBAFF, an activator of the noncanonical NFκB pathway, provides critical survival signals during B cell maturation and contributes to B cell proliferation. We found that the NFκB family member RelB is required ex vivo for B cell maturation, but cRel is required for proliferation. Combined molecular network modeling and experimentation revealed Nfkb2 p100 as a pathway switch; at moderate p100 synthesis rates in maturing B cells, BAFF fully utilizes p100 to generate the RelB:p52 dimer, whereas at high synthesis rates, p100 assembles into multimeric IκBsome complexes, which BAFF neutralizes in order to potentiate cRel activity and B cell expansion. Indeed, moderation of p100 expression or disruption of IκBsome assembly circumvented the BAFF requirement for full B cell expansion. Our studies emphasize the importance of p100 in determining distinct NFκB network states during B cell biology, which causes BAFF to have context-dependent functional consequences.
The NFκB family of dimeric transcription factors regulate inflammatory and immune responses. While the dynamic control of NFκB dimer activity via the IκB-NFκB signaling module is well understood, there is little information on how specific dimer repertoires are generated from Rel family polypeptides. Here we report the iterative construction – guided by in vitro and in vivo experimentation – of a mathematical model of the Rel-NFκB generation module. Our study reveals that IκBβ has essential functions within the Rel-NFκB generation module, specifically for the RelA:RelA homodimer, which controls a subset of NFκB target genes. Our findings revise the current dogma of the three classical, functionally-related IκB proteins by distinguishing between a positive ‘licensing’ factor (IκBβ) that contributes to determining the available NFκB dimer repertoire in a cell’s steady state, and negative feedback regulators (IκBα and -ε) that determine the duration and dynamics of the cellular response to an inflammatory stimulus.
Ngo et al. developed a genetic complementation system for NF-kB RelA that reveals that NF-kB target-gene selection requires high-affinity RelA binding and transcriptional activation domains for gene induction. The synergistic and redundant functions of two transactivation domains define proinflammatory and inflammation-response genes.
Whereas ubiquitin-dependent degrons have been characterized in some detail, how proteins may be targeted to ubiquitin-independent proteasomal degradation remains unclear. Here we show that IκBα contains a ubiquitin-independent degron whose activity is portable to heterologous proteins such as the globular protein GFP via a proteasome-dependent, ubiquitin-independent, non-lysosomal pathway. The ubiquitin-independent degradation signal resides in a 11 amino acid sequence, which is not only sufficient but also required for IκBα’s short half-life. Finally, we show that this degron’s activity is regulated by the interaction with NFκB, which controls its solvent exposure, and we demonstrate that this regulation of the degron’s activity is critical for IκBα’s signaling functions.
BackgroundCiliary defects cause heterogenous phenotypes related to mutation burden which lead to impaired development. A previously reported homozygous deletion in the Man1a2 gene causes lethal respiratory failure in newborn pups and decreased lung ciliation compared with wild type (WT) pups. The effects of heterozygous mutation, and the potential for rescue are not known.PurposeWe hypothesized that survival and lung ciliation, (a) would decrease progressively in Man1a2+/− heterozygous and Man1a2–/– null newborn pups compared with WT, and (b) could be enhanced by gestational treatment with N-Acetyl-cysteine (NAC), an antioxidant.MethodsMan1a2+/– adult mice were fed NAC or placebo from a week before breeding through gestation. Survival of newborn pups was monitored for 24 h. Lungs, liver and tails were harvested for morphology, genotyping, and transcriptional profiling.ResultsSurvival (p = 0.0001, Kaplan-Meier) and percent lung ciliation (p = 0.0001, ANOVA) measured by frequency of Arl13b+ respiratory epithelial cells decreased progressively, as hypothesized. Compared with placebo, gestational NAC treatment enhanced (a) lung ciliation in pups with each genotype, (b) survival in heterozygous pups (p = 0.017) but not in WT or null pups. Whole transcriptome of lung but not liver demonstrated patterns of up- and down-regulated genes that were identical in living heterozygous and WT pups, and completely opposite to those in dead heterozygous and null pups. Systems biology analysis enabled reconstruction of protein interaction networks that yielded functionally relevant modules and their interactions. In these networks, the mutant Man1a2 enzyme contributes to abnormal synthesis of proteins essential for lung development. The associated unfolded protein, hypoxic and oxidative stress responses can be mitigated with NAC. Comparisons with the developing human fetal lung transcriptome show that NAC likely restores normal vascular and epithelial tube morphogenesis in Man1a2 mutant mice.ConclusionSurvival and lung ciliation in the Man1a2 mutant mouse, and its improvement with N-Acetyl cysteine is genotype-dependent. NAC-mediated rescue depends on the central role for oxidative and hypoxic stress in regulating ciliary function and organogenesis during development.
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