Summary
Although lysine acetylation is now recognized as a general protein
modification for both histones and non-histone proteins1-3, the mechanisms of acetylation mediated actions are not
completely understood. Acetylation of the C-terminal domain (CTD) of p53 was the
first example for non-histone protein acetylation4. Yet the precise role of the CTD acetylation
remains elusive. Lysine acetylation often creates binding sites for
bromodomain-containing “reader” proteins5,6;
surprisingly, in a proteomic screen, we identified SET as a major cellular
factor whose binding with p53 is totally dependent on the CTD acetylation
status. SET profoundly inhibits p53 transcriptional activity in unstressed cells
but SET-mediated repression is completely abolished by stress-induced p53 CTD
acetylation. Moreover, loss of the interaction with SET activates p53, resulting
in tumor regression in mouse xenograft models. Notably, the acidic domain of SET
acts as a “reader” for unacetylated CTD of p53 and this mechanism
of acetylation-dependent regulation is widespread in nature. For example, p53
acetylation also modulates its interactions with similar acidic domains found in
other p53 regulators including VPRBP, DAXX and PELP1 (refs. 7-9),
and computational analysis of the proteome identified numerous proteins with the
potential to serve as the acidic domain readers and lysine-rich ligands. Unlike
bromodomain readers, which preferentially bind the acetylated forms of their
cognate ligands, the acidic domain readers specifically recognize the
unacetylated forms of their ligands. Finally, the acetylation-dependent
regulation of p53 was further validated in vivo by using a
knockin mouse model expressing an acetylation-mimicking form of p53. These
results reveal that the acidic domain-containing factors act as a new class of
acetylation-dependent regulators by targeting p53 and potentially, beyond.