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SOX4 is a member of SOX transcriptional factor family that is crucial for many cellular processes. In this study, a yeast two-hybrid screening of human mammary cDNA library identified human ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme 9 (hUbc9) that interacted with SOX4. This interaction was confirmed by GST pull-down in vitro and co-immunoprecipitation assays in vivo. Deletion mapping demonstrated that HMG-box domain of SOX4 is required to mediate the interaction with Ubc9 in yeast. Furthermore, confocal microscopy showed that Ubc9 co-localized with SOX4 in the nucleus. Luciferase assays found that Ubc9 specifically repressed SOX4 transcriptional activity in 293T cells. We further demonstrated that Ubc9 could functionally repress the transcriptional activity of endogenous SOX4 induced by progesterone in T47D cells. The C93S mutant of Ubc9, which abrogates SUMO-1 conjugation activity, did not abolish the ability to repress SOX4 activity. It shows that Ubc9 interacts with SOX4 and represses its transcriptional activity independent of its SUMO-1-conjugating activity.

Recent reports have shown that MDM2 may attenuate hypertrophy of cardiac myocytes. However, mechanism of MDM2 involving in this process is unclear. In this study, we identified a novel specific MDM2-binding protein TCAP by the yeast two-hybrid screen. It was validated by GST pull-down and co-immunoprecipitation assays. Confocal analysis showed that MDM2 and TCAP co-localized in the nucleus, and elevated MDM2 expression could alter the subcellular localization of TCAP. Notably, MDM2 downregulated the protein level of TCAP through the proteasomal pathway, and this downregulation was inhibited by p14ARF. In addition, our results suggested that the degradation of TCAP by MDM2 was through the ubiquitin-independent pathway. Given that TCAP is a key component involving in the cardiac hypertrophy, the degradation of TCAP by MDM2 might be connected with the roles of MDM2 in cardiac hypertrophy. Further investigation will focus on the biological significance of MDM2–TCAP interaction in cardiac hypertrophy.