José Aramburu

Concerted Dephosphorylation of the Transcription Factor NFAT1 Induces a Conformational Switch that Regulates Transcriptional Activity

NFAT transcription factors are highly phosphorylated proteins that are regulated by the calcium-dependent phosphatase calcineurin. We show by mass spectrometry that NFAT1 is phosphorylated on fourteen conserved phosphoserine residues in its regulatory domain, thirteen of which are dephosphorylated upon stimulation. Dephosphorylation of all thirteen residues is required to mask a nuclear export signal (NES), cause full exposure of a nuclear localization signal (NLS), and promote transcriptional activity. An inducible phosphorylation site in the transactivation domain contributes to transcriptional activity. Our data suggest that dephosphorylation promotes NFAT1 activation by increasing the probability of an active conformation, in a manner analogous to that by which depolarization increases the open probability of voltage-gated ion channels. This conformational switch paradigm may explain modification-induced functional changes in other heavily phosphorylated proteins.

Manipulating Immune Responses with Immunosuppressive Agents that Target NFAT

We thank Patrick Hogan, Jugnu Jain, and Cristina Lopez-Rodriguez for helpful discussions and critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (A. R.), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (A. K.), and the Arthritis Foundation (J. A.). A. R. was a Stohlman Scholar of the Leukemia Society of America.

Selective Inhibition of NFAT Activation by a Peptide Spanning the Calcineurin Targeting Site of NFAT

NFAT transcription factors play a key role in the immune response. The activation of NFAT proteins is controlled by calcineurin, the calmodulin-dependent phosphatase that is inhibited by the immunosuppressive drugs cyclosporin A and FK506. Here we identify a short conserved sequence in NFAT proteins that targets calcineurin to NFAT. Mutation of a single residue in this sequence impairs the calcineurin-mediated dephosphorylation and nuclear translocation of NFAT1. Peptides spanning the region inhibit the ability of calcineurin to bind to and dephosphorylate NFAT proteins, without affecting the phosphatase activity of calcineurin against other substrates. When expressed intracellularly, a corresponding peptide inhibits NFAT dephosphorylation, nuclear translocation, and NFAT-mediated expression in response to stimulation. Thus, disruption of the enzyme-substrate docking interaction that directs calcineurin to NFAT can effectively block NFAT-dependent functions.

Calcineurin : from structure to function

Publisher Summary The use of the calcineurin inhibitors—namely, FK506 and CsA, together with yeast genetics and the overexpression of calcineurin by transgenic mice, has established the critical roles of calcineurin in the regulation of many cellular processes that are induced by changes in the concentration of intracellular Ca 2+ in response to external signals. None of the physiological roles of calcineurin is better documented than the regulation of gene expression mediated by the broadly distributed NFAT family of transcription factors in mammalian cells. Equally well documented is the role of calcineurin in the regulation of expression of many genes that are under the control of the TCNI/CRZl transcription factor in yeast. Calcineurim was originally identified as a major calmodulin-binding protein in the brain and later shown to be the only Ca 2+ /calmodulin-regulated serine/threonine protein phosphatase. Since then, this enzyme has been shown to be expressed in every tissue and to be highly conserved phylogenetically.

Bridging the NFAT and NF-κB Families: NFAT5 Dimerization Regulates Cytokine Gene Transcription in Response to Osmotic Stress

Abstract The transcription factor NFAT5/TonEBP is evolutionarily the oldest member of the NFAT/Rel family of transcription factors. We show that NFAT5 is uniquely related to NF-κB and is the only member of the Rel/NFAT family to be activated by osmotic stress. Like Rel/NF-κB proteins but unlike the calcium-regulated NFAT proteins, NFAT5 is constitutively dimeric, and dimerization is essential for DNA binding and transcriptional activity. Using dominant-negative proteins that inhibit NFAT5 dimerization, we show that NFAT5 regulates expression of the TNFα and lymphotoxin-β genes in osmotically stressed T cells. Chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments confirm that NFAT5 binds to the TNFα promoter in vivo. We suggest that NFAT5 participates in specific aspects of host defense by upregulating TNF family genes and other target genes in T cells.

Calcineurin: a central controller of signalling in eukaryotes.

This meeting took place at the Juan March Foundation, Madrid, Spain, between 3 and 5 November 2003. It was sponsored by the Juan March Foundation and organized by E. Olson and J.M. Redondo. ![][1] Calcineurin is a serine‐ and threonine‐specific protein phosphatase that is conserved in all eukaryotes and is unique among phosphatases for its ability to sense Ca2+ through its activation by calmodulin. Identified and characterized in pioneering work by the Claude Klee and Philip Cohen laboratories in the late 1970s, calcineurin catapulted to centre stage when the groups of Stuart Schreiber and Irving Weissman discovered that it is the target of the immunosuppressants cyclosporin A and FK506. In the same year, the laboratory of Gerald Crabtree showed that cyclosporin blocks the nuclear import of the nuclear factor of activated T cell (NFAT) proteins and in 1993, the group of Anjana Rao showed that these proteins are dephosphorylated by calcineurin. These findings revealed a central pathway that coupled calcineurin to transcriptional regulation (Fig 1). Since then, calcineurin and NFAT proteins have been shown to participate in signalling cascades that govern the development and function of the immune, nervous, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. Parallel advances made in microbial systems, including model yeasts and pathogenic fungi, have revealed that the basic mechanisms of action of calcineurin are conserved from unicellular to multicellular eukaryotes. Figure 1. Signal integration and coincidence detection by assembly of NFATc transcriptional complexes in the nucleus. A range of signalling pathways are integrated in the nucleus by the assembly of NFATc transcriptional complexes from calcineurin‐dependent NFATc subunits and inducible nuclear partners (NFATn), which regulate the affinity and specificity of NFATc DNA binding and ensure transcriptional activation in response to two signals. This mechanism allows the complexes to behave as coincidence detectors and signal integrators. CK1, casein kinase 1; Csp1, calcipressin … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif

Two-site Interaction of Nuclear Factor of Activated T Cells with Activated Calcineurin

Transcription factors belonging to the nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) family regulate the expression of cytokine genes and other inducible genes during the immune response. The functions of NFAT proteins are directly controlled by the calcium- and calmodulin-dependent phosphatase calcineurin. Here we show that the binding of calcineurin to NFAT is substantially increased when calcineurin is activated with calmodulin and calcium. FK506·FKBP12 drug-immunophilin complexes inhibited the interaction of NFAT with activated calcineurin much more effectively than they inhibited the interaction with inactive calcineurin, suggesting that part of the interaction with activated calcineurin involved the enzyme active site. We have previously shown that NFAT is targeted to inactive calcineurin at a region distinct from the calcineurin active site (Aramburu, J., Garcia-Cozar, F. J., Raghavan, A., Okamura, H., Rao, A., and Hogan, P. G. (1998)Mol. Cell 1, 627–637); this region is also involved in NFAT binding to activated calcineurin, since binding is inhibited by an NFAT peptide spanning the calcineurin docking site on NFAT. The interacting surfaces are located on the catalytic domain of the calcineurin A chain and on an 86-amino acid fragment of the NFAT regulatory domain. NFAT binding to the calcineurin catalytic domain was inhibited by the calcineurin autoinhibitory domain and the RII substrate peptide, which bind in the calcineurin active site, as well as by the NFAT docking site peptide, which binds to a region of calcineurin distinct from the active site. We propose that, in resting cells, NFAT is targeted to a region of the calcineurin catalytic domain that does not overlap the calcineurin active site. Upon cell activation, displacement of the autoinhibitory domain by calmodulin binding allows NFAT to bind additionally to the calcineurin active site, thus positioning NFAT for immediate dephosphorylation at functional phosphoserine residues.

Analysis of the transcriptional activity of endogenous NFAT5 in primary cells using transgenic NFAT-luciferase reporter mice

BackgroundThe transcription factor NFAT5/TonEBP regulates the response of mammalian cells to hypertonicity. However, little is known about the physiopathologic tonicity thresholds that trigger its transcriptional activity in primary cells. Wilkins et al. recently developed a transgenic mouse carrying a luciferase reporter (9xNFAT-Luc) driven by a cluster of NFAT sites, that was activated by calcineurin-dependent NFATc proteins. Since the NFAT site of this reporter was very similar to an optimal NFAT5 site, we tested whether this reporter could detect the activation of NFAT5 in transgenic cells.ResultsThe 9xNFAT-Luc reporter was activated by hypertonicity in an NFAT5-dependent manner in different types of non-transformed transgenic cells: lymphocytes, macrophages and fibroblasts. Activation of this reporter by the phorbol ester PMA plus ionomycin was independent of NFAT5 and mediated by NFATc proteins. Transcriptional activation of NFAT5 in T lymphocytes was detected at hypertonic conditions of 360–380 mOsm/kg (isotonic conditions being 300 mOsm/kg) and strongly induced at 400 mOsm/kg. Such levels have been recorded in plasma in patients with osmoregulatory disorders and in mice deficient in aquaporins and vasopressin receptor. The hypertonicity threshold required to activate NFAT5 was higher in bone marrow-derived macrophages (430 mOsm/kg) and embryonic fibroblasts (480 mOsm/kg). Activation of the 9xNFAT-Luc reporter by hypertonicity in lymphocytes was insensitive to the ERK inhibitor PD98059, partially inhibited by the PI3-kinase inhibitor wortmannin (0.5 μM) and the PKA inhibitor H89, and substantially downregulated by p38 inhibitors (SB203580 and SB202190) and by inhibition of PI3-kinase-related kinases with 25 μM LY294002. Sensitivity of the reporter to FK506 varied among cell types and was greater in primary T cells than in fibroblasts and macrophages.ConclusionOur results indicate that NFAT5 is a sensitive responder to pathologic increases in extracellular tonicity in T lymphocytes. Activation of NFAT5 by hypertonicity in lymphocytes was mediated by a combination of signaling pathways that differed from those required in other cell types. We propose that the 9xNFAT-Luc transgenic mouse model might be useful to study the physiopathological regulation of both NFAT5 and NFATc factors in primary cells.

NFAT5 Regulates T Lymphocyte Homeostasis and CD24-Dependent T Cell Expansion under Pathologic Hypernatremia

Immune cells rely on the transcription factor NFAT5 to adapt to hypertonic stress. The hypertonicity-dependent role of NFAT5 in T cells in vivo remains unclear because mouse models of NFAT5 deficiency have produced substantially different T cell phenotypes. In this study, we analyzed the T cell compartment in NFAT5-null and T cell-specific NFAT5 knockout mice. We found that NFAT5-null mice had constitutive, pronounced hypernatremia and suffered a severe immunodeficiency, with T cell lymphopenia, altered CD8 naive/memory homeostasis, and inability to reject allogeneic tumors. By contrast, T cell-specific NFAT5 knockout mice had normal plasma tonicity, rejected allogeneic tumors, and exhibited only a mild, low-penetrance memory bias in CD8 cells. Notably, when T cells from these mice were cultured ex vivo in hypernatremic media, they exhibited features found in NFAT5-null mice, with pronounced naive/memory imbalance and impaired homeostatic survival in response to IL-7, as well as a severe inhibition of their mitogen-induced proliferation. By analyzing surface receptors whose expression might be affected in NFAT5-deficient cells, we identified CD24 as a novel NFAT5 target induced by hypertonicity both in vitro and in vivo, and required to sustain T cell expansion under osmostress. NFAT5 bound to the Cd24 promoter in response to hypertonicity facilitated the local derepression of chromatin and enhanced the expression of CD24 mRNA and protein. Altogether, our results indicate that the systemic hypernatremia of NFAT5-null mice is a major contributor to their immunodeficiency, and highlight the role of NFAT5 and CD24 in the homeostasis of T cells under osmostress in vivo.

The Transcription Factor NFAT5 Is Required for Cyclin Expression and Cell Cycle Progression in Cells Exposed to Hypertonic Stress

Background Hypertonicity can perturb cellular functions, induce DNA damage-like responses and inhibit proliferation. The transcription factor NFAT5 induces osmoprotective gene products that allow cells to adapt to sustained hypertonic conditions. Although it is known that NFAT5-deficient lymphocytes and renal medullary cells have reduced proliferative capacity and viability under hypertonic stress, less is understood about the contribution of this factor to DNA damage responses and cell cycle regulation. Methodology/Principal Findings We have generated conditional knockout mice to obtain NFAT5−/− T lymphocytes, which we used as a model of proliferating cells to study NFAT5-dependent responses. We show that hypertonicity triggered an early, NFAT5-independent, genotoxic stress-like response with induction of p53, p21 and GADD45, downregulation of cyclins, and cell cycle arrest. This was followed by an NFAT5-dependent adaptive phase in wild-type cells, which induced an osmoprotective gene expression program, downregulated stress markers, resumed cyclin expression and proliferation, and displayed enhanced NFAT5 transcriptional activity in S and G2/M. In contrast, NFAT5−/− cells failed to induce osmoprotective genes and exhibited poorer viability. Although surviving NFAT5−/− cells downregulated genotoxic stress markers, they underwent cell cycle arrest in G1/S and G2/M, which was associated with reduced expression of cyclins E1, A2 and B1. We also show that pathologic hypertonicity levels, as occurring in plasma of patients and animal models of osmoregulatory disorders, inhibited the induction of cyclins and aurora B kinase in response to T cell receptor stimulation in fresh NFAT5−/− lymphocytes. Conclusions/Significance We conclude that NFAT5 facilitates cell proliferation under hypertonic conditions by inducing an osmoadaptive response that enables cells to express fundamental regulators needed for cell cycle progression.