Opposing effects of Arkadia and Smurf on TGFbeta1-induced IgA isotype expression

TGF-beta1 induces Ig germ-line alpha (GLalpha) transcription and subsequent class switching recombination (CSR) to IgA. In the present study, we investigated the roles of two E3-ubiquitin ligases, Smurfs (HECT type) and Arkadia (RING finger type) on TGFbeta1-induced IgA CSR. We found that over-expression of Smurf1 and Smurf2 decreased TGFbeta1-induced GLalpha promoter activity and strengthened the inhibitory effect of Smad7 on the promoter activity. Further, over-expression of Smurf1 and Smurf2 decreased both Smad3/4-mediated and Runx3-mediated GLalpha promoter activities, suggesting that the Smurfs can down-regulate the major TGF-beta1 signaling pathway and decrease GLalpha gene expression. In parallel, the over-expressed Smurf1 decreased the expression of endogenous IgA CSR-predictive transcripts (GLT(alpha), PST(alpha), and CT(alpha)) and also TGFbeta1-induced IgA secretion. Conversely over-expression of Arkadia abolished the inhibitory effect of Smad7 on TGFbeta1-induced GLT(alpha) expression and IgA secretion. Similar results were obtained in the presence of over-expressed Smad7 and Smurf1. These results indicate that Arkadia can amplify TGFbeta1-induced IgA CSR by degrading Smad7, which interacts with Smurf1. We conclude that Smurf and Arkadia have opposite roles in the regulation of TGFbeta1-induced IgA isotype expression.