Abstract
Posttranslational modifications of NF-κB, including phosphorylation, acetylation, and methylation, have emerged as important regulatory mechanisms to control the transcriptional outcomes of this important transcription factor. These modifications work independently, sequentially or in combination to modulate the diverse biological functions of NF-κB in cancer and inflammatory response. Here, we describe some experimental methods to detect the in vitro and in vivo phosphorylation and acetylation of NF-κB, specifically focusing on the RelA subunit of NF-κB. These methods include labeling the phospho- or acetyl- groups with radioisotopes in vitro and immunoblotting with site-specific anti-phospho-serine or acetyl-lysine antibodies in culture cells and tissue samples.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ghosh S, Karin M (2002) Missing pieces in the NF-kappaB puzzle. Cell 109(Suppl):S81–S96
Yang WH, Park SY, Nam HW, Kim DH, Kang JG, Kang ES et al (2008) NFkappaB activation is associated with its O-GlcNAcylation state under hyperglycemic conditions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105(45):17345–17350
Kelleher ZT, Matsumoto A, Stamler JS, Marshall HE (2007) NOS2 regulation of NF-kappaB by S-nitrosylation of p65. J Biol Chem 282(42):30667–30672
Huang B, Yang XD, Lamb A, Chen LF (2010) Posttranslational modifications of NF-kappaB: another layer of regulation for NF-kappaB signaling pathway. Cell Signal 22(9):1282–1290
Perkins ND (2006) Post-translational modifications regulating the activity and function of the nuclear factor kappa B pathway. Oncogene 25(51):6717–6730
Chen LF, Greene WC (2004) Shaping the nuclear action of NF-kB. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 5(5):392–401
Zhong H, SuYang H, Erdjument-Bromage H, Tempst P, Ghosh S (1997) The transcriptional activity of NF-kappaB is regulated by the IkappaB-associated PKAc subunit through a cyclic AMP-independent mechanism. Cell 89(3):413–424
Sakurai H, Chiba H, Miyoshi H, Sugita T, Toriumi W (1999) IkB kinases phosphorylate NF-kB p65 subunit on serine 536 in the transactivation domain. J Biol Chem 274(43):30353–30356
Christian F, Smith EL, Carmody RJ (2016) The regulation of NF-kappaB subunits by phosphorylation. Cell 5(1):12
Chen LF, Williams SA, Mu Y, Nakano H, Duerr JM, Buckbinder L et al (2005) NF-kappaB RelA phosphorylation regulates RelA acetylation. Mol Cell Biol 25(18):7966–7975
Zhong H, Voll RE, Ghosh S (1998) Phosphorylation of NF-kappa B p65 by PKA stimulates transcriptional activity by promoting a novel bivalent interaction with the coactivator CBP/p300. Mol Cell 1(5):661–671
Ryo A, Suizu F, Yoshida Y, Perrem K, Liou YC, Wulf G et al (2003) Regulation of NF-kappaB signaling by Pin1-dependent prolyl isomerization and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis of p65/RelA. Mol Cell 12(6):1413–1426
Kiernan R, Bres V, Ng RW, Coudart MP, El Messaoudi S, Sardet C et al (2003) Post-activation turn-off of NF-kB-dependent transcription is regulated by acetylation of p65. J Biol Chem 278(4):2758–2766
Chen LF, Mu Y, Greene WC (2002) Acetylation of RelA at discrete sites regulates distinct nuclear functions of NF-kB. EMBO J 21(23):6539–6548
Buerki C, Rothgiesser KM, Valovka T, Owen HR, Rehrauer H, Fey M et al (2008) Functional relevance of novel p300-mediated lysine 314 and 315 acetylation of RelA/p65. Nucleic Acids Res 36(5):1665–1680
Rothgiesser KM, Fey M, Hottiger MO (2010) Acetylation of p65 at lysine 314 is important for late NF-kappaB-dependent gene expression. BMC Genomics 11:22
Yeung F, Hoberg JE, Ramsey CS, Keller MD, Jones DR, Frye RA et al (2004) Modulation of NF-kappaB-dependent transcription and cell survival by the SIRT1 deacetylase. EMBO J 23(12):2369–2380
Yang XD, Tajkhorshid E, Chen LF (2010) Functional interplay between acetylation and methylation of the RelA subunit of NF-kappaB. Mol Cell Biol 30(9):2170–2180
Zou Z, Huang B, Wu X, Zhang H, Qi J, Bradner J et al (2014) Brd4 maintains constitutively active NF-kappaB in cancer cells by binding to acetylated RelA. Oncogene 33(18):2395–2404
Wu X, Qi J, Bradner JE, Xiao G, Chen LF (2013) Bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) protein inhibition suppresses human T cell leukemia virus 1 (HTLV-1) Tax protein-mediated tumorigenesis by inhibiting nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) signaling. J Biol Chem 288(50):36094–36105
Lee H, Herrmann A, Deng JH, Kujawski M, Niu G, Li Z et al (2009) Persistently activated Stat3 maintains constitutive NF-kappaB activity in tumors. Cancer Cell 15(4):283–293
Chen LF, Fischle W, Verdin E, Greene WC (2001) Duration of nuclear NF-kB action regulated by reversible acetylation. Science 293(5535):1653–1657
Yang XD, Huang B, Li M, Lamb A, Kelleher NL, Chen LF (2009) Negative regulation of NF-kappaB action by Set9-mediated lysine methylation of the RelA subunit. EMBO J 28(8):1055–1066
Lu T, Jackson MW, Wang B, Yang M, Chance MR, Miyagi M et al (2010) Regulation of NF-kappaB by NSD1/FBXL11-dependent reversible lysine methylation of p65. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107(1):46–51
Savaryn JP, Skinner OS, Fornelli L, Fellers RT, Compton PD, Terhune SS et al (2016) Targeted analysis of recombinant NF kappa B (RelA/p65) by denaturing and native top down mass spectrometry. J Proteome 134:76–84
Benson LJ, Annunziato AT (2004) In vitro analysis of histone acetyltransferase activity. Methods 33(1):45–52
Ea CK, Baltimore D (2009) Regulation of NF-kappaB activity through lysine monomethylation of p65. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106(45):18972–18977
Levy D, Kuo AJ, Chang Y, Schaefer U, Kitson C, Cheung P et al (2010) Lysine methylation of the NF-kappaB subunit RelA by SETD6 couples activity of the histone methyltransferase GLP at chromatin to tonic repression of NF-kappaB signaling. Nat Immunol 12(1):29–36
Trouplin V, Boucherit N, Gorvel L, Conti F, Mottola G, Ghigo E (2013) Bone marrow-derived macrophage production. J Vis Exp 81:e50966
Wang J, Cai Y, Shao LJ, Siddiqui J, Palanisamy N, Li R et al (2011) Activation of NF-{kappa}B by TMPRSS2/ERG fusion isoforms through toll-like receptor-4. Cancer Res 71(4):1325–1333
Zhang L, Shao L, Creighton CJ, Zhang Y, Xin L, Ittmann M et al (2015) Function of phosphorylation of NF-kB p65 ser536 in prostate cancer oncogenesis. Oncotarget 6(8):6281–6294
Chen LF, Greene WC (2005) Assessing acetylation of NF-kappaB. Methods 36(4):368–375
Acknowledgments
The work described in this article was supported in part by funds from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Modi, N.T., Chen, LF. (2021). Measuring NF-κB Phosphorylation and Acetylation. In: Franzoso, G., Zazzeroni, F. (eds) NF-κB Transcription Factors. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2366. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1669-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1669-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-1668-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1669-7
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols