ABSTRACT
Intracellular levels of the RNA-binding protein and pluripotency factor, Lin28a, are tightly controlled to govern cellular and organismal growth. Lin28a is extensively regulated at the posttranscriptional level, and can undergo mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-mediated elevation from low basal levels in differentiated cells by phosphorylation-dependent stabilizing interaction with the RNA-silencing factor HIV TAR RNA-binding protein (TRBP). However, molecular and spatiotemporal details of this critical control mechanism remained unknown. In this work, we dissect the interacting regions of Lin28a and TRBP proteins and develop biosensors to visualize this interaction. We identify truncated domains of Lin28a and of TRBP that are sufficient to support coassociation and mutual elevation of protein levels, and a requirement for MAPK-dependent phosphorylation of TRBP at putative Erk-target serine 152, as well as Lin28a serine 200 phosphorylation, in mediating the increase of Lin28a protein by TRBP. The phosphorylation-dependent association of Lin28a and TRBP truncated constructs is leveraged to develop fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based sensors for dynamic monitoring of Lin28a and TRBP interaction. We demonstrate the response of bimolecular and unimolecular FRET sensors to growth factor stimulation in living cells, with coimaging of Erk activation to achieve further understanding of the role of MAPK signaling in Lin28a regulation.
Subject(s)
Biosensing Techniques , Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases/metabolism , RNA-Binding Proteins/metabolism , Signal Transduction , Amino Acid Sequence , Animals , HEK293 Cells , Humans , Mice , Phosphorylation , Phosphoserine/metabolism , Protein Binding , RNA-Binding Proteins/chemistry , Reproducibility of ResultsABSTRACT
Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the second most common sexually transmitted bacterial pathogen worldwide. Diseases associated with N. gonorrhoeae cause localized inflammation of the urethra and cervix. Despite this inflammatory response, infected individuals do not develop protective adaptive immune responses to N. gonorrhoeae. N. gonorrhoeae is a highly adapted pathogen that has acquired multiple mechanisms to evade its host's immune system, including the ability to manipulate multiple immune signaling pathways. N. gonorrhoeae has previously been shown to engage immunosuppressive signaling pathways in B and T lymphocytes. We have now found that N. gonorrhoeae also suppresses adaptive immune responses through effects on antigen presenting cells. Using primary, murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells and lymphocytes, we show that N. gonorrhoeae-exposed dendritic cells fail to elicit antigen-induced CD4+ T lymphocyte proliferation. N. gonorrhoeae exposure leads to upregulation of a number of secreted and dendritic cell surface proteins with immunosuppressive properties, particularly Interleukin 10 (IL-10) and Programmed Death Ligand 1 (PD-L1). We also show that N. gonorrhoeae is able to inhibit dendritic cell- induced proliferation of human T-cells and that human dendritic cells upregulate similar immunosuppressive molecules. Our data suggest that, in addition to being able to directly influence host lymphocytes, N. gonorrhoeae also suppresses development of adaptive immune responses through interactions with host antigen presenting cells. These findings suggest that gonococcal factors involved in host immune suppression may be useful targets in developing vaccines that induce protective adaptive immune responses to this pathogen.
