The conserved WRPW motif of Hes6 mediates proteasomal degradation

Ah Kang Seon, Hong Seol Jea, Jaesang Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Hes6 belongs to a subfamily of basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors that includes Drosophila Hairy and Enhancer of split genes. Like other members of the family, Hes6 features the WRPW motif which is consisted just of four amino acids at its C-terminus. Here, we show that WRPW motif deletion mutant protein is substantially stabilized in comparison to the full length protein and that the enhanced stability is due to its resistance to proteasomal degradation. The WRPW motif also appears to be sufficient for acceleration of proteolysis as its fusion to two heterologous proteins, the green fluorescent protein (GFP) of Aequoria victoria and Gal4 DNA binding domain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, significantly destabilized the proteins. These findings demonstrate a novel function of this conserved motif as a degradation signal and raise the possibility of utilizing it for controlling the level of ectopically expressed gene products.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)33-36
Number of pages4
JournalBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
Volume332
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 24 Jun 2005

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank S.Y. Lee for his critical comments on the manuscript. We thank D.J. Anderson for permitting the use of anti-Hes6 antiserum. This research was supported by the Ewha Womans University Research Grant of 2003, by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation through the Center for Cell Signaling Research at Ewha Womans University, and by a grant (M103KV010010 04K2201 01020; to J. Kim) from Brain Research Center of the 21st Century Frontier Research Program funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Republic of Korea.

Keywords

  • Hes6
  • Proteasome
  • Proteolysis
  • Ubiquitination
  • WRPW

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The conserved WRPW motif of Hes6 mediates proteasomal degradation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this