The maintenance of homeostasis throughout an organism's life span requires constant adaptation to changes in energy levels. The AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) plays a critical role in the cellular responses to low energy levels by switching off energy-consuming pathways and switching on energy-producing pathways. However, the transcriptional mechanisms by which AMPK acts to adjust cellular energy levels are not entirely characterized. Here, we find that AMPK directly regulates mammalian FOXO3, a member of the FOXO family of Forkhead transcription factors known to promote resistance to oxidative stress, tumor suppression, and longevity. We show that AMPK phosphorylates human FOXO3 at six previously unidentified regulatory sites. Phosphorylation by AMPK leads to the activation of FOXO3 transcriptional activity without affecting FOXO3 subcellular localization. Using a genome-wide microarray analysis, we identify a set of target genes that are regulated by FOXO3 when phosphorylated at these six regulatory sites in mammalian cells. The regulation of FOXO3 by AMPK may play a crucial role in fine tuning gene expression programs that control energy balance and stress resistance in cells throughout life.The maintenance of cellular energy levels in response to changes in nutrient availability, exercise, or stress stimuli is pivotal for organismal homeostasis throughout life. Disruption of this balance is associated with a number of pathologies, including diabetes and cancer. The AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) 3 plays a crucial role in translating changes in energy levels into adaptive cellular responses (1, 2). AMPK is a heterotrimeric protein kinase composed of three subunits: a catalytic subunit (␣), a scaffolding subunit (␤), and an AMP-sensing subunit (␥). AMPK is activated by stimuli that increase the AMP/ ATP ratio in cells. Excess AMP activates AMPK by inhibiting the dephosphorylation of the ␣ catalytic subunit (3) and by inducing a change in conformation in the AMPK heterotrimeric complex that promotes the phosphorylation and activation of the ␣ catalytic subunit by the AMPK-activating protein kinases, LKB1 and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase (4 -8).AMPK controls cell metabolism and growth in response to low energy levels by phosphorylating a variety of substrates in cells, including acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), tuberous sclerosis complex 2, and p27 KIP1 (9 -11). AMPK also regulates gene expression by phosphorylating co-activators, such as transducer of regulated CREB, thyroid hormone receptor interactor 6, and the transcription factor p53 (12-16). The LKB1-AMPK pathway plays a pivotal role in tumor suppression (17, 18), in diabetes prevention (19), and in longevity (20). Thus, identifying novel AMPK substrates is important to understand how the LKB1-AMPK pathway mediates its effects in the organism.FOXO transcription factors are good candidates to be regulated by AMPK. The FOXO family of Forkhead transcription factors (FOXO1, FOXO3, FOXO4, and FOXO6 in mammals) plays an important role in the...

FoxO transcription factors play a conserved role in longevity and act as tissue-specific tumor suppressors in mammals. Several nodes of interaction have been identified between FoxO transcription factors and p53, a major tumor suppressor in humans and mice. However, the extent and importance of the functional interaction between FoxO and p53 have not been fully explored. Here, we show that p53 transactivates the expression of FoxO3, one of the four mammalian FoxO genes, in response to DNA damaging agents in both mouse embryonic fibroblasts and in thymocytes. We show that p53 transactivates FoxO3 in cells by binding to a site in the second intron of the FoxO3 gene, a genomic region recently found to be associated with extreme longevity in humans. While FoxO3 is not necessary for p53-dependent cell cycle arrest, FoxO3 appears to modulate p53-dependent apoptosis. We also find that FoxO3 loss does not interact with p53 loss for tumor development in vivo, although the tumor spectrum of p53 deficient mice may be affected by FoxO3 loss. Our findings indicate that FoxO3 is a p53 target gene, and suggest that FoxO3 and p53 are part of a regulatory transcriptional network that may play an important role during aging and cancer.