In vivo complex formation of PU.1 with HDAC1 associated with PU.1-mediated transcriptional repression

We previously reported that overexpression of PU.1, a member of the Ets family of transcription factors, induces differentiation inhibition and apoptosis associated with c-Myc down-regulation in murine erythroleukemia (MEL) cells. To understand the molecular mechanism by which c-Myc is down-regulated due to overexpression of PU.1, we performed luciferase reporter assays using the mouse c-myc promoter. PU.1 repressed the activities of not only the c-myc promoter but also several other promoters. Experiments with deletion mutants of PU.1 revealed that the C-terminal region spanning amino acids (aa) 123-272 including the PEST and ETS domains but not the activation domain was sufficient for this transcriptional repression. It was unlikely that the repression was due to sequestration of a limited amount of CBP/p300 nor pCAF, because overexpression of these co-activators did not relieve PU.1-mediated transcriptional repression. Instead, it was found that the C-terminal aa 101-272 of PU.1 formed a complex with mSin3A and HDAC1 in vivo, which was speculated to be associated with the repression. The C-terminal region of PU.1 also formed a complex with the basic transcription factor TBP in vitro and in vivo. Our results suggest that overexpression of PU.1 induces transcriptional repression in several gene promoters including the c-myc promoter which may be mediated by its complex formation with HDACs.