Structural details on mdm2-p53 interaction.

Mdm2 is a cellular antagonist of p53 that keeps a balanced cellular level of p53. The two proteins are linked by a negative regulatory feedback loop and physically bind to each other via a putative helix formed by residues 18-26 of p53 transactivation domain (TAD) and its binding pocket located ...
within the N-terminal 100-residue domain of mdm2 (Kussie, P. H., Gorina, S., Marechal, V., Elenbaas, B., Moreau, J., Levine, A. J., and Pavletich, N. P. (1996) Science 274, 948-953). In a previous report we demonstrated that p53 TAD in the mdm2-freee state is mostly unstructured but contains two nascent turns in addition to a "preformed" helix that is the same as the putative helix mediating p53-mdm2 binding. Here, using heteronuclear multidimensional NMR methods, we show that the two nascent turn motifs in p53 TAD, turn I (residues 40-45) and turn II (residues 49-54), are also capable of binding to mdm2. In particular, the turn II motif has a higher mdm2 binding affinity ( approximately 20 mum) than the turn I and targets the same site in mdm2 as the helix. Upon mdm2 binding this motif becomes a well defined full helix turn whose hydrophobic face formed by the side chains of Ile-50, Trp-53, and Phe-54 inserts deeply into the helix binding pocket. Our results suggest that p53-mdm2 binding is subtler than previously thought and involves global contacts such as multiple "non-contiguous" minimally structured motifs instead of being localized to one small helix mini-domain in p53 TAD.
Mesh Terms:
Amino Acid Motifs, Amino Acid Sequence, Cell Line, Transformed, Humans, Kinetics, Ligands, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Models, Molecular, Molecular Sequence Data, Peptides, Protein Binding, Protein Conformation, Protein Structure, Secondary, Protein Structure, Tertiary, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2, Spectrophotometry, Surface Plasmon Resonance, Time Factors, Transcription, Genetic, Transcriptional Activation, Tumor Suppressor Protein p53
J. Biol. Chem.
Date: Nov. 18, 2005
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