Smad7 Promoter Research Articles

Smad6 Is a Smad1/5-induced Smad Inhibitor: CHARACTERIZATION OF BONE MORPHOGENETIC PROTEIN-RESPONSIVE ELEMENT IN THE MOUSE Smad6 PROMOTER

Smad6 is an inhibitory Smad that is induced by bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and interferes with BMP signaling. We have isolated the mouse Smad6 promoter and identified the regions responsible for transcriptional activation by BMPs. The proximal BMP-responsive element (PBE) in the Smad6 promoter is important for the transcriptional activation by BMPs and contains a 28-base pair GC-rich sequence including four overlapping copies of the GCCGnCGC-like motif, which is a binding site for Drosophila Mad and Medea. We generated a luciferase reporter construct (3GC2-Lux) containing three repeats of the GC-rich sequence derived from the PBE. BMPs and BMP receptors induced transcriptional activation of 3GC2-Lux in various cell types, and this activation was enhanced by cotransfection of BMP-responsive Smads, i.e. Smad1 or Smad5. Moreover, direct DNA binding of BMP-responsive Smads and common-partner Smad4 to the GC-rich sequence of PBE was observed. These results indicate that the expression of Smad6 is regulated by the effects of BMP-activated Smad1/5 on the Smad6 promoter.

Regulation of Smad7 Promoter by Direct Association with Smad3 and Smad4

Smad7 is a regulatory Smad protein that is able to antagonize signal transduction by transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) and activin receptors. To characterize the regulation of Smad7 at the transcriptional level, we isolated the promoter region of the mouse Smad7 gene. When the Smad7 promoter luciferase reporter gene (-408 and +112 bp) was expressed in human hepatoma (HepG2) cells, its transcriptional activity was increased following TGF-beta or activin treatment. In addition, this region of the Smad7 promoter was stimulated by ectopic expression of Smad3 as well as constitutively active TGF-beta and activin receptors, indicating that Smad7 transcription was modulated by the signaling downstream those two receptors. A gel mobility shift assay indicated that a DNA fragment spanning -408 to -126 base pairs (bp) was able to directly bind purified Smad4. Furthermore, a consensus Smad3-Smad4 binding element (SBE) was discovered in this region of the promoter with a palindromic sequence of GTCTAGAC. A 33-bp Smad7 promoter fragment containing this SBE was able to bind Smad3 and Smad4. In human embryonic kidney 293 cells, the expression of constitutively active TGF-beta type I receptor was able to induce the formation of a Smad3- and Smad4-containing nuclear protein complex that bound the SBE. In HepG2 cells, TGF-beta1 treatment could induce the formation of an endogenous SBE-binding complex. Taken together, these data provided the first evidence that Smad7 transcription is regulated by TGF-beta and activin signaling through direct binding of Smad3 and Smad4 to the Smad7 promoter.