Mairead Commane

Roles of JAKs in activation of STATs and stimulation of c-fos gene expression by epidermal growth factor.

The tyrosine kinase JAK1 and the transcription factors STAT1 and STAT3 are phosphorylated in response to epidermal growth factor (EGF) and other growth factors. We have used EGF receptor-transfected cell lines defective in individual JAKs to assess the roles of these kinases in STAT activation and signal transduction in response to EGF. Although JAK1 is phosphorylated in response to EGF, it is not required for STAT activation or for induction of the c-fos gene. STAT activation in JAK2- and TYK2-defective cells is also normal, and the tyrosine phosphorylation of these two kinases does not increase upon EGF stimulation in wild-type or JAK1-negative cells. In cells transfected with a kinase-negative mutant EGF receptor, there is no STAT activation in response to EGF and c-fos is not induced, showing that the kinase activity of the receptor is required, directly or indirectly, for these two responses. The data do not support a role for any of the three JAK family members tested in STAT activation and are consistent with a JAK-independent pathway in which the intrinsic kinase domain of the EGF receptor is crucial. Furthermore, data from transient transfection experiments in HeLa cells, using c-fos promoters lacking the STAT regulatory element c-sis-inducible element, indicate that this element may play only a minor role in the induction of c-fos by EGF in these cells.

Mutant Cells That Do Not Respond to Interleukin-1 (IL-1) Reveal a Novel Role for IL-1 Receptor-Associated Kinase

ABSTRACT Mutagenized human 293 cells containing an interleukin-1 (IL-1)-regulated herpes thymidine kinase gene, selected in IL-1 and gancyclovir, have yielded many independent clones that are unresponsive to IL-1. The four clones analyzed here carry recessive mutations and represent three complementation groups. Mutant A in complementation group I1 lacks IL-1 receptor-associated kinase (IRAK), while the mutants in the other two groups are defective in unknown components that function upstream of IRAK. Expression of exogenous IRAK in I1A cells (I1A-IRAK) restores their responsiveness to IL-1. Neither NFκB nor Jun kinase is activated in IL-1-treated I1A cells, but these responses are restored in I1A-IRAK cells, indicating that IRAK is required for both. To address the role of the kinase activity of IRAK in IL-1 signaling, its ATP binding site was mutated (K239A), completely abolishing kinase activity. In transfected I1A cells, IRAK-K239A was still phosphorylated upon IL-1 stimulation and, surprisingly, still complemented all the defects in the mutant cells. Therefore, IRAK must be phosphorylated by a different kinase, and phospho-IRAK must play a role in IL-1-mediated signaling that does not require its kinase activity.

IL-1-induced NFκB and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation diverge at IL-1 receptor-associated kinase (IRAK)

Mutant I1A cells, lacking IL-1 receptor-associated kinase (IRAK) mRNA and protein, have been used to study the involvement of IRAK in NFκB and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation. A series of IRAK deletion constructs were expressed in I1A cells, which were then tested for their ability to respond to IL-1. Both the N-terminal death domain and the C-terminal region of IRAK are required for IL-1-induced NFκB and JNK activation, whereas the N-proximal undetermined domain is required for the activation of NFκB but not JNK. The phosphorylation and ubiquitination of IRAK deletion mutants correlate tightly with their ability to activate NFκB in response to IL-1, but IRAK can mediate IL-1-induced JNK activation without being phosphorylated. These studies reveal that the IL-1-induced signaling pathways leading to NFκB and JNK activation diverge either at IRAK or at a point nearer to the receptor.

Mutant human cells with constitutive activation of NF-κB

We have used a genetic approach to generate eight different mutant human cell lines in which NF-κB is constitutively activated. These independent clones have different phenotypes and belong to several different genetic complementation groups. In one clone inhibitor of κB(IκB) kinase is constitutively active, but in the seven others it is not, despite the fact that IκB is degraded in all eight clones. Thus, IκB kinase-independent mechanisms of IκB degradation and NF-κB activation are predominant in these mutants. Biochemical analyses of the mutants revealed that they fall into at least five different categories, differing in the sets of upstream kinases that are activated, confirming multiple mechanisms of NF-κB activation. By introducing a retroviral cDNA library into the Ras C6 cell line, with constitutively active NF-κB, followed by selection for functional complementation, we isolated a cDNA encoding a C-terminal fragment of enolase 1 and identified it as negative regulator of NF-κB.