No abstract

The bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) regulate early embryogenesis and morphogenesis of multiple organs, such as bone, kidney, limbs, and muscle. Smad1 is one of the key signal transducers of BMPs and is responsible for transducing receptor activation signals from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, where Smad1 serves as a transcriptional regulator of various BMP-responsive genes. Based upon the ability of Smad1 to bind multiple proteins involved in proteasome-mediated degradation pathway, we investigated whether Smad1 could be a substrate for proteasome. We found that Smad1 is targeted to proteasome for degradation in response to BMP type I receptor activation. The targeting of Smad1 to proteasome involves not only the receptor activation-induced Smad1 ubiquitination but also the targeting functions of the ornithine decarboxylase antizyme and the proteasome beta subunit HsN3. Our studies provide the first evidence for BMP-induced proteasomal targeting and degradation of Smad1 and also reveal new players and novel mechanisms involved in this important aspect of Smad1 regulation and function.

Background: The intracellular signaling events of the Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMPs) involve the R-Smad family members Smad1, Smad5, Smad8 and the Co-Smad, Smad4. Smads are currently considered to be DNA-binding transcriptional modulators and shown to recruit the master transcriptional co-activator CBP/p300 for transcriptional activation. SNIP1 is a recently discovered novel repressor of CBP/p300. Currently, the detailed molecular mechanisms that allow R-Smads and Co-Smad to co-operatively modulate transcription events are not fully understood.

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) induce dendritic growth in cultured sympathetic neurons; however, the signaling pathways that mediate this dendrite-promoting activity have not been previously characterized. Here we report studies of the signaling events that regulate the growth of these afferent processes. We find that Smad1 is expressed in sympathetic neurons and that BMPs rapidly induce its phosphorylation and translocation from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Furthermore, a dominant negative form of Smad1 inhibits BMP-7-induced dendritic growth, suggesting a requirement for Smad1 activation in this biological activity of BMP-7. A physical interaction between Smad1 and components involved in the proteasome-mediated degradation system was detected with a yeast two-hybrid screen, thereby prompting an examination of the effects of proteasome inhibitors on dendritic growth. Lactacystin and ALLN (N-acetyl-Leu-Leu-norleucinal) selectively blocked BMP-7-induced dendritic growth without adversely affecting either cell viability or axonal growth. Moreover, studies of transfected P19 cells suggest that the proteasome inhibitors directly block the effects of Smad1 on the transcriptional activity of the Tlx-2 promoter. These data indicate that BMP-induced dendritic growth requires Smad1 activation and involves proteasome-mediated degradation events.