title: p53 mutations isolated in yeast based on loss of transcription factor activity: similarities and differences from p53 mutations detected in human tumors.
abstract: p53 is a transcriptional activator that plays a key role in the integration of signals inducing cell division arrest and programmed cell death. Moreover, p53 is a tumor suppressor gene, mutations of which are the most commonly detected mutations in diverse malignancies. In order to better understand the significance of p53 mutations to human cancer, we isolated mutant alleles of p53 that had lost transcription factor activity in yeast. These mutant alleles were evaluated for their precise changes, their activity against three different p53 responsive enhancers and their ability to act in a transdominant fashion to the wild type allele. While many of the mutations isolated in yeast resembled those found in human tumors, consistent with the importance of transcription factor activity for p53 in mammalian cells, the mutational spectrum obtained was dependent upon the p53 enhancer employed for the selection. Some mutations specifically inactivated p53 in yeast for a single enhancer element. Virtually all missense mutations tested had a dominant inhibitory effect on wild type p53 in yeast. Since some of these transdominant mutations are virtually unknown in human tumors we conclude that transdominance, per se, fails to predict which mutations occur frequently in cancer.
authors.affiliation: Princeton University, Department of Molecular Biology, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Epstein
authors.forename: E F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Attiyeh
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Hobson
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Silver
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Broach
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Levine
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D003402:Creatine Kinase / Q000235:genetics; D050759:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21; D016213:Cyclins / Q000235:genetics; D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic; D006801:Humans; D016296:Mutagenesis; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010641:Phenotype; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D051736:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015533:Transcriptional Activation; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015003:Yeasts / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C493956:CDKN1A protein, human; D050759:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21; D016213:Cyclins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; C497206:MDM2 protein, human; D051736:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2; D003402:Creatine Kinase