ATF5, a member of activating transcription factor (ATF)/ cAMP-response element-binding protein (CREB) family of b-ZIP transcription factors, contributes to neural cell differentiation and is involved in cell apoptosis in response to cisplatin and a number of environment factors. However, the mechanisms governing the regulation of ATF5 protein during apoptosis are largely unknown. In this study we reported that ATF5 protein was a substrate of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. Interestingly, the ubiquitin-dependent degradation of exogenous ATF5 protein was independent of lysine residues. Instead, the addition of a large N-terminal enhanced green fluorescence protein tag increased the stability of ATF5 protein, and the free amino acid group of the N-terminal methionine of ATF5 protein was a site for ubiquitinylation, indicating that exogenous ATF5 was degraded via the ubiquitin-proteasome system through N-terminal ubiquitinylation. Furthermore, cisplatin increased ATF5 protein expression via preventing its ubiquitin-dependent degradation, which might be associated with its promoting the nucleus-to-cytoplasm translocation of E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme Cdc34 and reducing the interaction between ATF5 and Cdc34. In summary, a down-regulation of proteasome-mediated degradation of ATF5 might contribute to cisplatin-induced apoptosis, providing a new mechanism of cisplatin-induced apoptosis.
ATF53 transcription factor, a member of ATF/cAMP-response element-binding protein (CREB) family of b-ZIP transcription factors (1), plays a critical role in regulating cAMP response element-dependent genes and functions as an essential role in neural cell differentiation (2-4).Accumulated data from our laboratory and other investigators indicated that ATF5 functions as an apoptosis-related protein in response to a number of environment factors and DNA damage (5, 6). Interference with the function or expression of ATF5 in glioma cells leads to their death in vitro and in vivo (7), indicating that ATF5 might be an attractive target for therapeutic intervention in glioblastoma. Consistent with this, ATF5 was widely expressed in carcinomas, and interference with its function caused apoptotic cell death of neoplastic breast cell lines (8). Furthermore, ATF5 functioned as an anti-apoptotic role in an interleukin 3-dependent cell line (9). And, we have showed that ATF5 was up-regulated by cisplatin, and its overexpression increased cisplatin-induced apoptosis in HeLa cells (5), indicating the pro-apoptotic role of ATF5 in DNA damageinduced apoptosis. Previously, Pati et al. (10) showed that ATF5 interacted with E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme Cdc34. Cdc34 and RAD6 had been reported to be important components of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in the nucleus which was responsible for the degradation of some transcriptional factors (11). Although the progress in ATF5-interacting partners, function, and their relation to some diseases have been made in recent years, the precise molecular mechanisms of ATF5 protein regulation during apopto...