Hypoxia actively represses transcription by inducing negative cofactor 2 (Dr1/DrAP1) and blocking preinitiation complex assembly

Nicholas Denko, Kara Wernke-Dollries, Amber Buescher Johnson, Ester Hammond, Cheng Ming Chiang, Michelle Craig Barton

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

Hypoxia is a growth inhibitory stress associated with multiple disease states. We find that hypoxic stress actively regulates transcription not only by activation of specific genes but also by selective repression. We reconstituted this bimodal response to hypoxia in vitro and determined a mechanism for hypoxia-mediated repression of transcription. Hypoxic cell extracts are competent for transcript elongation, but cannot assemble a functional preinitiation complex (PIC) at a subset of promoters. PIC assembly and RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain (CTD) phosphorylation were blocked by hypoxic induction and core promoter binding of negative cofactor 2 protein (NC2α/β, Dr1/DrAP1). Immunodepletion of NC2β/Dr1 protein complexes rescued hypoxic-repressed transcription without alteration of normoxic transcription. Physiological regulation of NC2 activity may represent an active means of conserving energy in response to hypoxic stress.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)5744-5749
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Biological Chemistry
Volume278
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 21 2003
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Cell Biology

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