Mc. Venanzoni et al., ETS1 AND ETS2 IN P53 REGULATION - SPATIAL SEPARATION OF ETS BINDING-SITES (EBS) MODULATE PROTEIN - DNA INTERACTION, Oncogene, 12(6), 1996, pp. 1199-1204
p53 is an extensively studied tumor suppressor gene implicated in the
genesis of a large number of varied tumours. However, the pathways of
regulation for the wild-type p53 gene and its product are as yet unkno
wn. In situ hybridization analyses of ETS1 and ETS2 expression during
mouse embryogenesis, have shown a pattern similar to that of p53 gene
expression. Significantly, we have identified several ETS-binding site
s (EBS) in the promoter regions of the human and mouse p53 genes. In t
he human promoter two of these EBS are present in the form of a palind
rome, with the two EBS cores being separated by four nucleotides. This
report shows that the EBS palindrome of the human p53 promoter has a
high affinity for ETS1 and ETS2, and that such binding interaction int
racellularly is able to activate the transcription of a CAT reporter g
ene by 5-10-fold using COS cells. To investigate whether the spacing b
etween the two EBS cores influences the DNA binding activity, we synth
esized oligonucleotides with increasing distances (4,12,16 and 20 base
s respectively) between the two EBS cores of the palindrome. We observ
ed an inverse correlation between an increasing distance in the two EB
S cores of the palindrome and the ETS1 and ETS2 DNA binding activity r
espectively. Interestingly, optimal DNA binding activity was observed
when the distance between the two EBS cores was four bases, identical
to that which occurs in the natural promoter. Furthermore we show that
the p53 mRNA is expressed at higher levels in NIH3T3 cells over-expre
ssing ETS2 gene product, suggesting that the ETS2 transcription factor
is a likely candidate for regulating the expression of p53 in vivo.