Spreitzer Emil, Alderson T Reid, Bourgeois Benjamin, Eggenreich Loretta, Habacher Hermann, Brahmersdorfer Greta, Pritišanac Iva, Sánchez-Murcia Pedro A, Madl Tobias
Gottfried Schatz Research Center for Cell Signaling, Metabolism and Aging, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Division of Physiological Chemistry, Otto-Loewi Research Center, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Curr Res Struct Biol. 2022 Apr 27;4:118-133. doi: 10.1016/j.crstbi.2022.04.001. eCollection 2022.
Transcription factors play key roles in orchestrating a plethora of cellular mechanisms and controlling cellular homeostasis. Transcription factors share distinct DNA binding domains, which allows to group them into protein families. Among them, the Forkhead box O (FOXO) family contains transcription factors crucial for cellular homeostasis, longevity and response to stress. The dysregulation of FOXO signaling is linked to drug resistance in cancer therapy or cellular senescence, however, selective drugs targeting FOXOs are limited, thus knowledge about structure and dynamics of FOXO proteins is essential. Here, we provide an extensive study of structure and dynamics of all FOXO family members. We identify residues accounting for different dynamic and structural features. Furthermore, we show that the auto-inhibition of FOXO proteins by their C-terminal trans-activation domain is conserved throughout the family and that these interactions are not only possible intra-, but also inter-molecularly. This indicates a model in which FOXO transcription factors would modulate their activities by interacting mutually.
转录因子在协调众多细胞机制和控制细胞内稳态方面发挥着关键作用。转录因子具有独特的DNA结合结构域,这使得它们能够被归类为蛋白质家族。其中,叉头框O(FOXO)家族包含对细胞内稳态、长寿和应激反应至关重要的转录因子。FOXO信号失调与癌症治疗中的耐药性或细胞衰老有关,然而,针对FOXO的选择性药物有限,因此了解FOXO蛋白的结构和动力学至关重要。在这里,我们对所有FOXO家族成员的结构和动力学进行了广泛研究。我们确定了导致不同动态和结构特征的残基。此外,我们表明FOXO蛋白的C端反式激活结构域对其自身的抑制作用在整个家族中是保守的,并且这些相互作用不仅可能发生在分子内,也可能发生在分子间。这表明了一种模型,即FOXO转录因子通过相互作用来调节其活性。