title: Structural and functional analysis of the YAP-binding domain of human TEAD2.
abstract: The Hippo pathway controls organ size and suppresses tumorigenesis in metazoans by blocking cell proliferation and promoting apoptosis. The TEAD1-4 proteins (which contain a DNA-binding domain but lack an activation domain) interact with YAP (which lacks a DNA-binding domain but contains an activation domain) to form functional heterodimeric transcription factors that activate proliferative and prosurvival gene expression programs. The Hippo pathway inhibits the YAP-TEAD hybrid transcription factors by phosphorylating and promoting cytoplasmic retention of YAP. Here we report the crystal structure of the YAP-binding domain (YBD) of human TEAD2. TEAD2 YBD adopts an immunoglobulin-like beta-sandwich fold with two extra helix-turn-helix inserts. NMR studies reveal that the TEAD-binding domain of YAP is natively unfolded and that TEAD binding causes localized conformational changes in YAP. In vitro binding and in vivo functional assays define an extensive conserved surface of TEAD2 YBD as the YAP-binding site. Therefore, our studies suggest that a short segment of YAP adopts an extended conformation and forms extensive contacts with a rigid surface of TEAD. Targeting a surface-exposed pocket of TEAD might be an effective strategy to disrupt the YAP-TEAD interaction and to reduce the oncogenic potential of YAP.
authors.affiliation: Departmentsof Pharmacology and Biochemistry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 6001 Forest Park Road, Dallas, TX 75390, USA.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Jianzhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Diana R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Tomchick
authors.forename: Duojia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Xuelian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D019281:Dimerization; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013499:Surface Properties; D000091262:TEA Domain Transcription Factors; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D000091262:TEA Domain Transcription Factors; C101205:TEAD2 protein, human; D014157:Transcription Factors; D004247:DNA