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Activity of FOXO (forkhead box O) transcription factors is inhibited by growth factor-PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase)-PKB (protein kinase B)/Akt signalling to control a variety of cellular processes including cell cycle progression. Through comparative analysis of a number of microarray datasets we identified a set of genes commonly regulated by FOXO proteins and PI3K-PKB/Akt, which includes CTDSP2 (C-terminal domain small phosphatase 2). We validated CTDSP2 as a genuine FOXO target gene and show that ectopic CTDSP2 can induce cell cycle arrest. We analysed transcriptional regulation after CTDSP2 expression and identified extensive regulation of genes involved in cell cycle progression, which depends on the phosphatase activity of CTDSP2. The most notably regulated gene is the CDK (cyclin-dependent kinase) inhibitor p21(Cip1/Waf1) and in the present study we show that p21(Cip1/Waf1) is partially responsible for the cell cycle arrest through decreasing cyclin-CDK activity. Our data suggest that CTDSP2 induces p21(Cip1/Waf1) through increasing the activity of Ras. As has been described previously, Ras induces p21(Cip1/Waf1) through p53-dependent and p53-independent pathways and indeed both p53 and MEK inhibition can mitigate the CTDSP2-induced p21(Cip1/Waf1) mRNA up-regulation. In support of Ras activation by CTDSP2, depletion of endogenous CTDSP2 results in reduced Ras activity and thus CTDSP2 seems to be part of a larger set of genes regulated by FOXO proteins, which increase growth factor signalling upon FOXO activation., (© 2015 Authors.)

Forkhead box O (FOXO) transcription factors are key players in diverse cellular processes affecting tumorigenesis, stem cell maintenance and lifespan. To gain insight into the mechanisms of FOXO-regulated target gene expression, we studied genome-wide effects of FOXO3 activation. Profiling RNA polymerase II changes shows that FOXO3 regulates gene expression through transcription initiation. Correlative analysis of FOXO3 and RNA polymerase II ChIP-seq profiles demonstrates FOXO3 to act as a transcriptional activator. Furthermore, this analysis reveals a significant part of FOXO3 gene regulation proceeds through enhancer regions. FOXO3 binds to pre-existing enhancers and further activates these enhancers as shown by changes in histone acetylation and RNA polymerase II recruitment. In addition, FOXO3-mediated enhancer activation correlates with regulation of adjacent genes and pre-existence of chromatin loops between FOXO3 bound enhancers and target genes. Combined, our data elucidate how FOXOs regulate gene transcription and provide insight into mechanisms by which FOXOs can induce different gene expression programs depending on chromatin architecture.

Wingless (Wnt) signaling regulates many aspects of development and tissue homeostasis, and aberrant Wnt signaling can lead to cancer. Upon a Wnt signal beta-catenin degradation is halted and consequently the level of beta-catenin in the cytoplasm increases. This allows entry of beta-catenin into the nucleus where it can regulate gene transcription by direct binding to members of the lymphoid enhancer factor/T cell factor (TCF) family of transcription factors. Recently, we identified Forkhead box-O (FOXO) transcription factors as novel interaction partners of beta-catenin (Essers, M. A., de Vries-Smits, L. M., Barker, N., Polderman, P. E., Burgering, B. M., and Korswagen, H. C. (2005) Science 308, 1181-1184). Here we show that the beta-catenin binding to FOXO serves a dual effect. beta-catenin, through binding, enhances FOXO transcriptional activity. In addition, FOXO competes with TCF for interaction with beta-catenin, thereby inhibiting TCF transcriptional activity. Reduced binding between TCF and beta-catenin is observed after FOXO overexpression and cellular oxidative stress, which simultaneously increases binding between beta-catenin and FOXO. Furthermore, small interfering RNA-mediated knock down of FOXO reverts loss of beta-catenin binding to TCF after cellular oxidative stress. Taken together, these results provide evidence for a cross-talk mechanism between FOXO and TCF signaling in which beta-catenin plays a central regulatory role.

Activity of FOXO (forkhead box O) transcription factors is inhibited by growth factor-PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase)- PKB (protein kinase B)/Akt signalling to control a variety of cellular processes including cell cycle progression. Through comparative analysis of a number of microarray datasets we identified a set of genes commonly regulated by FOXO proteins and PI3K-PKB/Akt, which includes CTDSP2 (Cterminal domain small phosphatase 2). We validated CTDSP2 as a genuine FOXO target gene and show that ectopic CTDSP2 can induce cell cycle arrest. We analysed transcriptional regulation after CTDSP2 expression and identified extensive regulation of genes involved in cell cycle progression, which depends on the phosphatase activity of CTDSP2. The most notably regulated gene is the CDK (cyclin-dependent kinase) inhibitor p21Cip1/Waf1 and in the present study we show that p21Cip1/Waf1 is partially responsible for the cell cycle arrest through decreasing cyclin- CDK activity. Our data suggest that CTDSP2 induces p21Cip1/Waf1 through increasing the activity of Ras. As has been described previously, Ras induces p21Cip1/Waf1 through p53-dependent and p53-independent pathways and indeed both p53 and MEK inhibition can mitigate the CTDSP2-induced p21Cip1/Waf1 mRNA up-regulation. In support of Ras activation by CTDSP2, depletion of endogenous CTDSP2 results in reduced Ras activity and thus CTDSP2 seems to be part of a larger set of genes regulated by FOXO proteins, which increase growth factor signalling upon FOXO activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]