The tetratricopeptide repeat domain of protein phosphatase 5 mediates binding to glucocorticoid receptor heterocomplexes and acts as a dominant negative mutant.

We previously identified a protein-serine phosphatase designated PP5, based on the binding of its tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domain to the atrial natriuretic peptide receptor (Chinkers, M. (1994) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 91, 11075-11079). We have now identified another protein complex to which PP5 is targeted through its TPR domain. A 90-kDa protein, identified as heat shock protein 90 (hsp90) by immunoblotting, specifically co-immunoprecipitated from COS-7 cell lysates with the FLAG-tagged TPR domain of PP5. hsp90 also co-immunoprecipitated with full-length FLAG-tagged PP5 overexpressed in COS-7 cells and with endogenous PP5 from untransfected COS-7 cells or rat brain. During gel filtration, PP5 and hsp90 comigrated in a high molecular weight complex. Since glucocorticoid receptors (GR) exist as large heterocomplexes containing hsp90 bound to TPR proteins, we hypothesized that PP5 might be associated with these complexes. Consistent with this hypothesis, PP5 specifically co-immunoprecipitated with GR from mouse L cell lysates. To test the functional importance of this TPR-mediated association in living cells, we used a dominant negative PP5 mutant consisting only of its TPR domain. The mutant inhibited GR-mediated transactivation by approximately 70% in transfected CV-1 cells. This is the first evidence that the TPR proteins in steroid receptor heterocomplexes may be required for signaling in vivo.