ARF promotes MDM2 degradation and stabilizes p53: ARF-INK4a locus deletion impairs both the Rb and p53 tumor suppression pathways

MDM2 expression during mouse embryogenesis and the requirement of p53

We compared mouse embryonic expression of the MDM2 proto-oncogene, p21WAF1/CIP1 and their transcriptional regulator, p53. MDM2 expression is ubiquitous from 7.5 to 11.5 days post coitum (dpc) and more restricted from 12.5 dpc, with the highest levels in the testes and neural tube. From 14.5 to 18.5 dpc, the nasal respiratory epithelium expresses high levels of MDM2 RNA and protein and p21WAF1/CIP1 RNA, in both wild type and p53 null embryos. MDM2 expression during development is tissue-specific and, like p21WAF1/CIP1, is independent of p53. MDM2 may have a developmental role after 6.5 dpc, when MDM2 null mice die (Jones, S.N., Roe, A.E., Donehower, L.A., Bradley, A., 1995. Rescue of embryonic lethality in Mdm2-deficient mice by absence of p53. Nature 378, 206-208; Montes de Oca Luna, R., Wagner, D.S., Lozano, G., 1995. Rescue of early embryonic lethality in mdm2-deficient mice by deletion of p53. Nature 378, 203-206).

The Ink4a tumor suppressor gene product, p19Arf, interacts with MDM2 and neutralizes MDM2's inhibition of p53

The INK4a gene encodes two distinct growth inhibitors--the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p16Ink4a, which is a component of the Rb pathway, and the tumor suppressor p19Arf, which has been functionally linked to p53. Here we show that p19Arf potently suppresses oncogenic transformation in primary cells and that this function is abrogated when p53 is neutralized by viral oncoproteins and dominant-negative mutants but not by the p53 antagonist MDM2. This finding, coupled with the observations that p19Arf and MDM2 physically interact and that p19Rrf blocks MDM2-induced p53 degradation and transactivational silencing, suggests that p19Arf functions mechanistically to prevent MDM2's neutralization of p53. Together, our findings ascribe INK4a's potent tumor suppressor activity to the cooperative actions of its two protein products and their relation to the two central growth control pathways, Rb and p53.