Notch1 antiapoptotic activity is abrogated by caspase cleavage in dying T lymphocytes

Excessive signaling via the Notch1 receptor inhibits apoptosis in T lymphocytes. Since several antiapoptotic proteins are cleaved by caspases during cell death, we investigated whether Notch1 was a caspase substrate. Results demonstrate that the intracellular domain of Notch1 (NICD) is cleaved into six fragments during apoptosis in Jurkat cells or peripheral T lymphocytes. Notch1 cleavage is prevented by the caspase inhibitors DEVD-fmk and VEID-fmk or by Bcl-2 expression. Caspase-3 and caspase-6 cleave the NICD into six fragments using sites located within the NF-kappaB binding domain, the ankyrin repeats and the transactivation domain. Notch1 cleavage correlates with the loss of HES-1 expression in apoptotic T cells. Notch1 fragments cannot inhibit activation-induced cell death in a T-cell hybridoma, confirming the abrogation of Notch1 antiapoptotic activity by caspases. The ability of the NICD but not the fragments to antagonize Nur77 activity supports a role for this factor in Notch1 antiapoptotic function.     

The origin of the ankyrin repeat region in Notch intracellular domains is critical for regulation of HES promoter activity

Notch signal transduction is mediated by proteolysis of the receptor and translocation of the intracellular domain (IC) into the nucleus, where it functions as a regulator of HES gene expression after binding to the DNA-binding protein RBP-J kappa. The mammalian Notch receptors are structurally very similar, but have distinct functions. Most notably, Notch 1 IC is a potent activator of the HES promoter, while Notch 3 IC is a much weaker activator and can repress Notch 1 IC-mediated HES activation in certain contexts. In this report we explore the molecular basis for this functional difference between Notch 1 and Notch 3 IC. We find that Notch 3 IC, like Notch 1 IC, can bind the SKIP and PCAF proteins. Furthermore, both Notch 1 and Notch 3 ICs displace the co-repressor SMRT from the DNA-binding protein RBP-J kappa on the HES promoter. The latter observation suggests that both Notch 3 IC and Notch 1 IC can access RBP-J kappa in vivo, and that the difference in activation capacity instead stems from structural differences in the two ICs when positioned on RBP-J kappa. We show that two distinct regions in the Notch IC are critical for the difference between the Notch 1 and Notch 3 IC. First, the origin of the ankyrin repeat region is important, i.e. only chimeric ICs containing a Notch 1-derived ankyrin repeat region are potent activators. Second, we identify a novel important region in the Notch IC. This region, named the RE/AC region (for repression/activation), is located immediately C-terminal to the ankyrin repeat region, and is required for Notch 1 IC's ability to activate and for Notch 3 IC's ability to repress a HES promoter. The interplay between the RE/AC region and the ankyrin repeat region provides a basis to understand the difference in HES activation between structurally similar Notch receptors.     

KyoT3, an isoform of murine FHL1, associates with the transcription factor RBP-J and represses the RBP-J-mediated transactivation

Previously, we have shown that KyoT2, an isoform of the four and a half LIM domain protein 1 (FHL1), modulates Notch signaling via repressing RBP-J-mediated transactivation. In this study, we investigated the effect of another isoform of FHL1, KyoT3, on transactivation of a RBP-J-dependent promoter. We found that KyoT3 was expressed widely in a variety of tissues. By constructing EGFP fusion proteins, we showed that KyoT3 locates preferentially in nucleus. KyoT3 interacted with RBP-J, as shown by co-immunoprecipitation assays. Moreover, we demonstrated by a reporter assay that KyoT3 repressed transactivation of a RBP-J-dependent promoter, which was activated by both the Notch intracellular domain and Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen 2, an EB virus-encoded oncoprotein. These results suggest a multi-elemental control of the Notch signaling pathway, which is critical for cell differentiation in development.     

Structure and stability of the ankyrin domain of the Drosophila Notch receptor

The Notch receptor contains a conserved ankyrin repeat domain that is required for Notch-mediated signal transduction. The ankyrin domain of Drosophila Notch contains six ankyrin sequence repeats previously identified as closely matching the ankyrin repeat consensus sequence, and a putative seventh C-terminal sequence repeat that exhibits lower similarity to the consensus sequence. To better understand the role of the Notch ankyrin domain in Notch-mediated signaling and to examine how structure is distributed among the seven ankyrin sequence repeats, we have determined the crystal structure of this domain to 2.0 angstroms resolution. The seventh, C-terminal, ankyrin sequence repeat adopts a regular ankyrin fold, but the first, N-terminal ankyrin repeat, which contains a 15-residue insertion, appears to be largely disordered. The structure reveals a substantial interface between ankyrin polypeptides, showing a high degree of shape and charge complementarity, which may be related to homotypic interactions suggested from indirect studies. However, the Notch ankyrin domain remains largely monomeric in solution, demonstrating that this interface alone is not sufficient to promote tight association. Using the structure, we have classified reported mutations within the Notch ankyrin domain that are known to disrupt signaling into those that affect buried residues and those restricted to surface residues. We show that the buried substitutions greatly decrease protein stability, whereas the surface substitutions have only a marginal affect on stability. The surface substitutions are thus likely to interfere with Notch signaling by disrupting specific Notch-effector interactions and map the sites of these interactions.