Phosphorylation of serine 212 confers novel activity to human estrogen receptor ?.

ABSTRACT: Estrogen receptor ? (ER?) can be phosphorylated at various residues, one of which is serine 212 in the DNA binding domain. The majority of human nuclear receptors conserves, as a motif, this serine residue within their DNA binding domain. Among these nuclear receptors, phosphorylation of the corresponding threonine 38 in the nuclear receptor CAR is essential for determining its activity [9]. Here, we have investigated the role of phosphorylated serine 212 in the regulation of ER? activity by comparing it with serine 236, another potential phosphorylation site within the DNA binding domain, and demonstrated that phosphorylation of serine 212 confers upon ER? a distinct activity regulating gene expression in Huh-7 cells. In Western blot analysis, wild type ER? and mutants ER? S212A, ER? S212D, ER? S236A and ER? S236D were equally expressed in the nucleus, thus indicating that phosphorylation does not determine nuclear localization of ER?. ER? S212D, but not ER? S236D, retained its capability of activating an ERE-reporter gene in luciferase assays. Similar results were also obtained for human ER?; the ER? S176D mutant retained its trans-activation activity, but the ER? S200D mutant did not. cDNA microarray and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, employed on Huh-7 cells ectopically expressing either ER? S212A or ER? S212D, revealed that phosphorylation of serine 212 enabled ER? to regulate a unique set of genes and cellular functions.

SUBMITTER: Shindo S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4033595 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature