Mammalian cells have a remarkable diverse repertoire of response to genotoxic stress that damage DNA. Cellular responses to DNA damaging agents will initially exhibit gene induction, which is regulated by complex mechanism(s) and probably involves multiple signaling pathways. In this paper, we demonstrate that induction of ATF3 protein, a member of the ATF/CREB family of transcription factors, by ionizing radiation (IR) requires normal cellular p53 function. In contrast, induction of ATF3 after UV radiation (UV) or Methyl methanesulphonate (MMS) is independent of p53 status. Induction of ATF3 by DNA damage is rapid, transient, and through a transcriptional mechanism. The ATF3 promoter is induced by UV and MMS, but not by IR. In addition, ATF3 promoter can be activated by MEKK1, an upstream activator of the ERK and JNK kinase pathway, but not induced following p53 expression. Those results indicate that regulation of ATF3 induction after DNA damage utilizes both the p53-dependent andindependent pathways, and may also involve MAP kinase signaling pathways. Using the tetracyclineinducible system (tet-off), we have found that overexpression of ATF3 protein moderately suppresses cell growth. Interestingly, over-expression of ATF3 protein is able to slow down progression of cells from G1 to S phase, indicating that ATF3 protein might play a negative role in the control of cell cycle progression.

Cell cycle growth arrest is an important cellular response to genotoxic stress. Gadd45, a p53-regulated stress protein, plays an important role in the cell cycle G 2 -M checkpoint following exposure to certain types of DNA-damaging agents such as UV radiation and methylmethane sulfonate. Recent findings indicate that Gadd45 interacts with Cdc2 protein and inhibits Cdc2 kinase activity. In the present study, a series of Myctagged Gadd45 deletion mutants and a Gadd45 overlapping peptide library were used to define the Gadd45 domains that are involved in the interaction of Gadd45 with Cdc2. Both in vitro and in vivo studies indicate that the interaction of Gadd45 with Cdc2 involves a central region of the Gadd45 protein (amino acids 65-84). The Cdc2-binding domain of Gadd45 is also required for Gadd45 inhibition of Cdc2 kinase activity. Sequence analysis of the central Gadd45 region reveals no homology to inhibitory motifs of known cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors, indicating that the Cdc2-binding and -inhibitory domains on Gadd45 are a novel motif. The peptide containing the Cdc2-binding domain (amino acids 65-84) disrupted the Cdc2-cyclin B1 protein complex, suggesting that dissociation of this complex results from a direct interaction between the Gadd45 and Cdc2 proteins. GADD45-induced cell cycle G 2 -M arrest was abolished when its Cdc2 binding motif was disrupted. Importantly, a short term survival assay demonstrated that GADD45-induced cell cycle G 2 -M arrest correlates with GADD45-mediated growth suppression. These findings indicate that the cell cycle G 2 -M growth arrest mediated by GADD45 is one of the major mechanisms by which GADD45 suppresses cell growth.

BRCA1, a breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene, has been implicated in gene regulation. Previous studies demonstrate that BRCA1 induces GADD45, a p53-regulated and stress-inducible gene that plays an important role in cellular response to DNA damage. However, the mechanism(s) by which BRCA1 regulates GADD45 remains unclear. In this report, we have shown that BRCA1 activation of the GADD45 promoter is mediated through the OCT-1 and CAAT motifs located at the GADD45 promoter region. Site-directed mutations of both OCT-1 and CAAT motifs abrogate induction of the GADD45 promoter by BRCA1. Both OCT-1 and CAAT motifs are able to confer BRCA1 inducibility in a nonrelated minimal promoter. Physical associations of BRCA1 protein with transcription factors Oct-1 and NF-YA, which directly bind to the OCT-1 and CAAT motifs, are established by biotin-streptavidin pull-down and coimmunoprecipitation assays. Such protein interactions are required for interaction of BRCA1 with the GADD45 promoter because either immunodepletion of Oct-1 and NF-YA proteins or mutations in the OCT-1 and CAAT motifs disrupt BRCA1 binding to the GADD45 promoter. These findings indicate that BRCA1 can up-regulate its targeted genes through protein-protein interactions and provide a novel mechanism by which BRCA1 participates in transcriptional regulation.

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Breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 has been implicated in the control of gene regulation and such regulated genes are thought to mediate the biological role of BRCA1. Overexpression of BRCA1 induces GADD45, a p53-regulated and stress-inducible gene. However, the molecular mechanism by which BRCA1 induces the expression GADD45 remains unclear. In this report, we have shown that the GADD45 promoter is strongly activated following expression of wild-type BRCA1. In contrast, both the tumor-derived BRCA1 mutants (p1749R and Y1853insA) and truncated BRCA1 mutant protein (D500 ± 1863 BRCA1), which lack transactivation activity, were unable to activate the GADD45 promoter, indicating that the BRCA1-mediated activation of the GADD45 promoter requires normal transcriptional properties of BRCA1. BRCA1 did not induce the c-Jun and c-fos promoters, which rules out a general eect of BRCA1 on other immediateresponsive genes. Expression of the human papillomavirus E6 and the dominant-negative mutant p53 proteins had no eect on the induction of the GADD45 promoter by BRCA1, suggesting that activation of the GADD45 promoter by BRCA1 is independent of cellular p53 function. With the 5'-deletion analysis, the BRCA1-responsive element of the GADD45 promoter was mapped at the region from 7121 to 775. Disruption of this region resulted in the abrogation of BRCA1 activation of the GADD45 promoter. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the mechanism by which BRCA1 induces GADD45 is mainly through the transactivation of the GADD45 promoter, further demonstrating the evidence that GADD45 acts as one of the BRCA1-regulated genes. Oncogene (2000) 19, 4050 ± 4057.