Molecular Basis for the Mechanism of Constitutive CBP/p300 Coactivator Recruitment by CRTC1-MAML2 and Its Implications in cAMP Signaling

The cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB) is a signal-dependent transcription factor that exerts its positive effects on gene transcription of a broad range of genes by recruiting coactivators, including CREB-binding protein (CBP), its paralog, p300, and the family of CRTC (CREB-regulated transcriptional coactivators) proteins. Whereas recruitment of CBP/p300 is dependent on CREB phosphorylation at Ser133, recruitment of CRTCs is not. Here we describe how both mechanisms could concurrently drive transcription of CREB targets in a subset of head and neck cancers featuring chromosomal translocations that fuse portions of CRTC1 and CRTC3 genes with that of the Mastermind-like transcriptional coactivator MAML2. We show that a peptide derived from transactivation domain 1 (TAD1) of MAML2 binds to the CBP KIX domain with micromolar affinity. An ∼20-residue segment within this peptide, conserved in MAML2 orthologs and paralogs, binds directly to a KIX surface previously shown to bind to MLL1. The 20-residue MAML2 segment shares sequence similarity with MLL1, especially at those positions in direct contact with KIX, and like MLL1, the segment is characterized by the presence of an ∼10-residue helix. Because CRTC1/3-MAML2 fusion proteins are constitutively nuclear, like CREB, our results suggest constitutive recruitment of CBP/p300 to CREB targets that could be further enhanced by signals that cause CREB Ser133 phosphorylation.