Transcriptional Regulation by the Estrogen-Related Receptors
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Transcriptional Regulation by the Estrogen-Related Receptors Annie Tremblay A thesis submitted to the faculty of Graduate studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Annie Tremblay, November 2009 Department of Biochemistry McGill University Montréal, Québec, Canada ABSTRACT The Estrogen-Related receptors (ERRα, ERRβ and ERRγ) are ubiquitous, constitutively active, orphan nuclear receptors and little is known concerning post-translational modifications affecting their transcriptional activity. We observed that the conserved phosphorylation-dependent sumoylation motif (PDSM) within the N-terminal domain of the ERRs represses their transcriptional activity on compound promoters via a synergy control mechanism. We also identified protein inhibitor of activated stat y (PIASy), a SUMO E3 ligase, as a new interacting partner of ERRα which promotes the sumoylation of ERRα and represses its transcriptional activity in a PDSM-dependent manner. Furthermore, by showing that an ERRα phosphoS19-specific antibody, but not a polyclonal ERRα antibody with a minimal affinity for phosphorylated S19, allows detection of endogenous sumoylated ERRα in mouse liver extract, we confirmed that the ERRα phospho-sumoyl switch is functional in vivo. ERRα is highly expressed in the kidney, but its role in this organ is unknown. Therefore, we used a combination of physiological studies, gene expression and genome-wide location analysis to explore the role of ERRα in the kidney. A defect in sodium and potassium homeostasis was observed in the ERRα null mice, which correlated with the ERRα renal transcriptional program comprising key sodium and potassium channels. Furthermore, telemetry monitoring revealed that the ERRα null mice display a significantly reduced blood pressure at nighttime and this correlated the renal transcriptional program of ERRα comprising genes involved in blood pressure regulation. In addition, we identified the Renin-Angiotensin pathway genes as direct ERRα target genes in the kidney. These results identify a role for ERRα in renal sodium/potassium handling, intra-renal renin-angiotensin pathway, blood pressure regulation and possibly hypertension. ii RÉSUMÉ Les récepteurs reliés aux récepteurs de l’estrogène (ERRs) sont ubiquitaires et constitutivement actifs et le rôle joué par les modifications post- traductionnelles sur leur activité transcriptonnelle est peu connu. Nous avons démontré qu’un motif consensus de sumoylation phospho-dependente (PDSM) situé dans le domaine N-terminal diminue l’activité transcriptionnelle des ERRs sur des promoteurs à élements de réponses multiples grâce à un mécanisme de contrôle de la synergie. Nous avons aussi établi que les ERRs intéragissent avec la E3-SUMO-ligase PIASy et que cette dernière promouvoit la sumoylation du ERRα de manière phospho-dépendante. De plus, en montrant que la forme sumoylée endogène de ERRα dans de l’extrait de foie de souris n’était détectable qu’avec un anticorps spécifique dirigé contre la sérine 19 phoshorylée nous avons confirmé la validité de l’interrelation phosphorylation-sumoylation dans un contexte physiologique in vivo. Même si le haut niveau d’expression de ERRα dans les reins est reconnu, son rôle dans cet organe est inconnu. Nous avons donc utilisé une approche combinatoire d’analyses physiologiques, d’expression génique et d’identification de sites spécifiques de liaison à l’ADN au niveau génomique afin d’explorer plus avant le rôle physiologique de ERRα dans le rein. Nous avons observé que les souris knock-out pour le gène de ERRα présentent un problème au niveau de l’homéostasie sodique et potassique corrèlant directement avec le programme transcriptionnel rénal qui comprends plusieurs canaux sodiques et potassiques importants. De plus, la mesure des paramètres cardiovasculaires par télémétrie a révélé que les souris knock-out pour le gène du ERRα ont une pression sanguine nocturne plus faible qui corrèle avec le programme transcriptionnel comprenant plusieurs gènes influençant la pression sanguine. Nous avons aussi identifié les promoteurs de certains gènes composant le système rénine-angiotensine comme gènes cibles potentiels de ERRα dans les reins. Nos résultats suggèrent une implication du ERRα dans le contrôle de la pression sanguine basale et possiblement dans l’hypertension. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am thankful to my supervisor, Vincent Giguère, for giving me the opportunity to work in his laboratory. I am sincerely grateful not only for the advice, constructive criticism and directions, but especially for the freedom and latitude for research, which adequately prepared me for the future challenges of independent research. I wish to thank all the members of the laboratory, past and present, for the interesting discussions, scientific or not, which rendered more pleasant spending a lot of time in the laboratory, and especially to my bench neighbor Brian for his friendship, all the laughs as well as scientific collaboration. I also want to thank Majid and Geneviève for their suggestions and encouragements, their positive spirit and friendship. I also wish to express gratitude to our skillful technician Cathy for generating the in vivo ChIP-on-chip lists and sharing some of her precious mouse tissue collection. I want to extend my gratitude to Anna, Yoshi and other past members of the lab, for passing on their technical expertise of the molecular biology basics. I am grateful to the members of my advisory committee, Michel Tremblay and Xiang-Jiao Yang, for their valuable advice and suggestions. I also want to thank Serge for the interesting discussions and technical advice in the SUMO project. I am thankful to Carlo for his help and interest into my mice projects, as well as to our collaborators Tim Reudelhuber and Chantale for the telemetry and plasma renin experiments. Last but not least, I wish to express my profound gratitude to my family and friends for their endless and priceless support along this journey and, most of all, for believing in me. I am also thankful to Canderel and CIHR for funding. iv LIST OF PUBLICATIONS Arising From work of the thesis - Tremblay AM, Wilson BJ, Yang XJ and Giguère V. Phosphorylation- Dependent Sumoylation Regulates Estrogen-Related Receptor-α and -γ Transcriptional Activity through a Synergy Control Motif. (2008) Mol Endocrinol 22(3): 570–584. First Published Online December 6, 2007. - Tremblay AM, Dufour CR, Ghahremani M, Reudelhuber TL and Giguère V. Physiological Genomics Identifies Estrogen-Related Receptor α as a Regulator of Renal Sodium and Potassium Homeostasis and the Renin-Angiotensin Pathway. Mol Endocrinol. In Press. Epub November 9th 2009. Other publications - Grégoire S, Tremblay AM, Xiao L, Yang Q, Ma K, Nie J, Mao Z, Wu Z, Giguère V and Yang XJ. Control of MEF2 transcriptional activity by coordinated phosphorylation and sumoylation. (2006) J Biol Chem 281, 4423 –4433. - Tremblay AM and Giguère V. The NR3B subgroup: an ovERRview. (2007) Nuclear Receptor Signaling 5, e009. Review. - Wilson BJ, Tremblay AM, Giguère V. An Acetylation Switch Modulates the Function of Estrogen Related Receptor α. To be submitted shortly. v CONTRIBUTIONS OF AUTHORS Vincent Giguère: Supervised all aspects of the projects and edited the manuscripts. Xiang-Jiao Yang: Provided the wild-type Ubc9 and SUMO and E3 ligases plasmids; Discussed the results and revised the manuscript. Timothy L. Reudelhuber: Generated the telemetry and plasma renin concentration results. Discussed these results and revised the manuscript. Brian J. Wilson: Generated the following serine mutants: ERRα S19D, KR/S19A, KR/S19D, ERRγ S45A, S45D, KR/S45A, KR/S45D; performed the reporter gene assays presented in panels 3G, 3H, 5D and 6D; immortalized my primary ERRα null MEFs by SV40 large T viral infection. Catherine R. Dufour: Performed the ChIP-on-chip on mouse kidneys and target validations comprising those shown in panel 5A; provided the frozen circadian kidneys. Majid Ghahremani: Technical assistance and qRT-PCR validation. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... ii RÉSUMÉ .............................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................iv LIST OF PUBLICATIONS ..................................................................................v CONTRIBUTIONS OF AUTHORS...................................................................vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES...............................................................................................x LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................. xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................... xiii CHAPTER I: Literature Review..........................................................................1 1.1 The Nuclear Receptor Superfamily ...............................................................1 1.1.1 Classical Mode of Action and Hormone Response Elements .......................... 1 1.1.2 Nomenclature....................................................................................................... 5 1.1.3 Nuclear Receptor Anatomy ...............................................................................