期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:2003
卷号:100
期号:26
页码:15504-15509
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2533374100
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:Biological responses to oxygen availability play important roles in development, physiological homeostasis, and many disease processes. In mammalian cells, this adaptation is mediated in part by a conserved pathway centered on the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF). HIF is a heterodimeric protein complex composed of two members of the basic helix-loop-helix Per-ARNT-Sim (PAS) (ARNT, aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator) domain family of transcriptional activators, HIF and ARNT. Although this complex involves protein-protein interactions mediated by basic helix-loop-helix and PAS domains in both proteins, the role played by the PAS domains is poorly understood. To address this issue, we have studied the structure and interactions of the C-terminal PAS domain of human HIF-2 by NMR spectroscopy. We demonstrate that HIF-2 PAS-B binds the analogous ARNT domain in vitro, showing that residues involved in this interaction are located on the solvent-exposed side of the HIF-2 central {beta}-sheet. Mutating residues at this surface not only disrupts the interaction between isolated PAS domains in vitro but also interferes with the ability of full-length HIF to respond to hypoxia in living cells. Extending our findings to other PAS domains, we find that this {beta}-sheet interface is widely used for both intra- and intermolecular interactions, suggesting a basis of specificity and regulation of many types of PAS-containing signaling proteins.