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A more recent version of this article appeared on October 1, 2007
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Submitted on May 24, 2007
Revised on July 9, 2007
Accepted on July 16, 2007
*Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de l’Université Laval, L’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, Québec, Canada, G1R 2J6;
Laboratoire Stress Oxydants et Cancer, Service de Biologie Moléculaire Systémique, DBJC, CEA-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Monitoring Editor: Carole Parent
Apoptosis signal regulated kinase-1 (Ask1) lies upstream of a major redox-sensitive pathway leading to the activation of Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and the induction of apoptosis. We found that cell exposure to H2O2 caused the rapid oxidation of Ask1 leading to its multimerization through the formation of interchain disulfide bonds. Oxidized Ask1 was fully reduced within minutes after induction by H2O2. During this reduction, the thiol-disulphide oxidoreductase thioredoxin-1 (Trx1) became covalently associated with Ask1. Overexpression of Trx1 accelerated the reduction of Ask1 and a redox-inactive mutant of Trx1 (C35S) remained trapped with Ask1 blocking its reduction. Preventing the oxidation of Ask1 by either overexpressing Trx1 or using an Ask1 mutant in which the sensitive cysteines were mutated (Ask1-
Cys), impaired the activation of JNK and the induction of apoptosis while having little effect on Ask1 activation. Those results indicate that Ask1 oxidation is required at a step subsequent to activation for signaling downstream of Ask1 after H2O2-treatment.