Gene Regulation
Promyelocytic Leukemia Zinc Finger-Retinoic Acid Receptor α (PLZF-RARα), an Oncogenic Transcriptional Repressor of Cyclin-dependent Kinase Inhibitor 1A (p21WAF/CDKN1A) and Tumor Protein p53 (TP53) Genes*

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Promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger-retinoic acid receptor α (PLZF-RARα) is an oncogene transcriptional repressor that is generated by a chromosomal translocation between the PLZF and RARα genes in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL-type) patients. The molecular interaction between PLZF-RARα and the histone deacetylase corepressor was proposed to be important in leukemogenesis. We found that PLZF-RARα can repress transcription of the p21WAF/CDKN1A gene, which encodes the negative cell cycle regulator p21 by binding to its proximal promoter Sp1-binding GC-boxes 3, 4, 5/6, a retinoic acid response element (RARE), and distal p53-responsive elements (p53REs). PLZF-RARα also acts as a competitive transcriptional repressor of p53, RARα, and Sp1. PLZF-RARα interacts with co-repressors such as mSin3A, NCoR, and SMRT, thereby deacetylating histones Ac-H3 and Ac-H4 at the CDKN1A promoter. PLZF-RARα also interacts with the MBD3-NuRD complex, leading to epigenetic silencing of CDKN1A through DNA methylation. Furthermore, PLZF-RARα represses TP53 and increases p53 protein degradation by ubiquitination, further repressing p21 expression. Resultantly, PLZF-RARα promotes cell proliferation and significantly increases the number of cells in S-phase.

Leukemia
Oncogene
p53
Transcription Regulation
Transcription Repressor
PLZF-RAR
p21WAF/CDKN1A

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*

This work was supported by Grant 00001561 (to M.-W. H.) from the National R & D Program for Cancer Control, Korean Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family affairs and DOYAK Research Grant 2011-0028817 (to M.-W. H.) from the Korea Research Foundation of the Korea Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.