Detecting the Ligand-binding Domain Dimerization Activity of Estrogen Receptor Alpha Using the Mammalian Two-Hybrid Assay

Summary

We present a method for analyzing the 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen-dependent estrogen receptor alpha ligand-binding domain dimerization activity using the mammalian two-hybrid assay.

Abstract

Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) is an estrogenic ligand-dependent transcription regulator. The sequence of ERα protein is highly conserved among species. It has been thought that the function of human and mouse ERαs is identical. We demonstrate the differential 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen (4OHT) effect on mouse and human ERα ligand-binding domain (LBD) dimerization activity using the mammalian two-hybrid (M2H) assay. The M2H assay can demonstrate the efficiency of LBD homodimerization activity in mammalian cells, utilizing the transfection of two protein expression plasmids (GAL4 DNA-binding domain [DBD] fusion LBD and VP16 transactivation domain [VP16AD] fusion LBD) and a GAL4-responsive element (GAL4RE) fused luciferase reporter plasmid. When the GAL4DBD fusion LBD and the VP16AD fusion LBD make a dimer in the cells, this protein complex binds to the GAL4RE and, then, activates a luciferase gene expression through the VP16AD dependent transcription activity. The 4OHT-mediated luciferase activation is higher in the HepG2 cells that were transfected with the mouse ERα LBD fusion protein expression plasmids than in the human ERα LBD fusion protein expression plasmid transfected cells. This result suggests that the efficacy of the 4OHT-dependent mouse ERα LBD homodimerization activity is higher than human ERα LBD. In general, the utilization of the M2H assay is not ideal for the evaluation of nuclear receptor LBD dimerization activity, because agonistic ligands enhance the basal level of the LBD activity and that impedes the detection of LBD dimerization activity. We found that 4OHT does not enhance ERα LBD basal activity. That is a key factor for being able to determine and detect the 4OHT-dependent LBD dimerization activity for successfully using the M2H assay. ERα LBD-based M2H assays may be applied to study the partial agonist activity of selective estrogen receptor modulators (e.g., 4OHT) in various mammalian cell types.

Introduction

Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) is an estrogenic ligand-dependent transcription regulator. The amino acid sequenceof ERα is highly conserved among species. Because of the higher homology between human and mouse ERα, the function of these receptors is thought of as identical, and the differential activity of estrogenic substances (e.g., tamoxifen) in those species is caused by the species' differences in chemical metabolisms rather than by the structural differences of ERα. ERα has highly conserved domain structures that are common among the nuclear receptor (NR) superfamily, designated A to F domains. The E domain or ligand-binding ....

Protocol

1. Preparation of Plasmids for the Mammalian Two-hybrid Assay

1. Use the following plasmids: pG5-Luc, pBIND-ERαEF, and pACT-ERαEF.
   NOTE: The plasmids are available from the authors upon request and are sent on filter paper. pG5-Luc is the reporter plasmid that contains five repeats of GAL4 responsive elements fused with the luciferase expression unit (Figure 1A). pBIND-ERαEF is the protein expression plasmid for GAL4DBD-fused ERα LBD proteins. pBIND-ERαEF contains a Renilla luciferase expression unit for normalizing the transfection efficiency (Figure 1

Results

Figure 3 displays the scheme of possible responses in the combination (i) and combination (ii) plasmid-transfected cells. The experimental results are shown in Figure 4. The activity of combination (i) (pG5-Luc + pBIND-mERαEF + pACT) shows stimulation by 10 nM E2 (Figure 4A), because the ERα LBD contains the ligand-dependent transactivation functional domain, AF-2. Agonist (e.g.<.......

Discussion

Herein, we described the protocol for the M2H assay, focusing on the assay conditions for detecting the homodimerization activity of ERα LBD as an example. In general, the M2H assay is not popular for the assessment of ligand-dependent ERα LBD dimerization activity. This is due to the ERα LBD possessing a transcriptional activation function; the activity of which disturbs, in some cases, the results of the M2H assay. However, as we demonstrate here, the M2H assay can be used for analyzing the LBD dimerizat.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
pG5-Luc	Promega	E249A	Component of CheckMate Mammalian Two-Hybrid System
pBIND	Promega	E245A	Component of CheckMate Mammalian Two-Hybrid System
pACT	Promega	E246A	Component of CheckMate Mammalian Two-Hybrid System
One Shot TOP10 Chemically Competent E. coli	Invitrogen	C404010
Centrifuge Rotor	SORVALL	75006445
Swing Buckets	SORVALL	75006441
Cell Resuspension Solution (CRA)	Promega	A7112
Cell Lysis Solution (CLA)	Promega	A7122
Neutralization Solution (NSA)	Promega	A7131
Column Wash Solution (CWB)	Promega	A8102
Wizard Midipreps DNA Purification Resin	Promega	A7701
Wizard Midicolumns	Promega	A7651
MEM, no glutamine, no phenol red	Gibco	51200038
L-glutamine (200 mM)	Gibco	A2916801
0.5% Trypsin-EDTA (10x)	Gibco	15400054
Penicillin-Streptomycin (100x)	Sigma-Aldrich	P0781
BenchMark fetal bovine serum (FBS)	Gemini-Bio	100-106	Heat inactivated
Charcoal:dextran stripping fetal bovine serum	Gemini-Bio	100-119	Heat inactivated
DMEM, high glucose, no glutamine, no phenol red	Gibco	31053028	for transfection
Lipofectamine 2000	Invitrogen	11668027
Passive Lysis 5X Buffer	Promega	E1941
Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay System	Promega	E1980
SpectraMax L microplate reader	Molecular Devices
SoftMax Pro Software	Molecular Devices