p202, an interferon-inducible modulator of transcription, inhibits transcriptional activation by the p53 tumor suppressor protein, and a segment from the p53-binding protein 1 that binds to p202 overcomes this inhibition.

p202, an interferon-inducible murine protein, is a member of the "200 family" of proteins and is primarily nuclear. p202 is a modulator of transcription; it binds several transcription factors, including NF-kappaB p50 and p65, AP-1 c-Fos and c-Jun, and E2F1, and inhibits their transcriptional activity. p202 also binds pRb, the retinoblastoma protein, and if overexpressed it retards cell proliferation. Here we report that using the yeast two-hybrid assay we found that p202 bound the murine homolog of the human p53-binding protein 1 (53BP1), a protein shown to interact with the DNA binding domain of the p53 tumor suppressor protein. p202 bound a 98amino acid segment from 53BP1. This binding was inhibited by the replacement in p202 of a histidine (from the M(F/L)HATVA(T/S) sequence that is conserved among all of the 200 family proteins) by phenylalanine. We also report that overexpression of p202 inhibited the p53-dependent expression of reporter genes containing p53-activable segments from the mdm2 and p21 genes, whereas a decrease in the p202 level (in consequence of the expression of 202 antisense RNA) resulted in an increase in the p53-dependent expression of these reporters. Expression of the 53BP1 segment binding to p202 overcame the inhibition by overexpressed p202 of the transcription of reporters mediated by the p53 or the AP-1 transcription factors and of the proliferation of yeast.