| Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transforming growth factor-βs (TGF-βs), bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and activins are important regulators of developmental cell growth and differentiation. Signaling by these factors is mediated chiefly by the Smad family of latent transcription factors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There are a large number of uncharacterized cDNA clones that code for novel proteins with homology to known signaling molecules. We have identified a novel molecule from the HUGE database that is related to a previously known molecule, AMSH (associated molecule with the SH3 domain of STAM), an adapter shown to be involved in BMP signaling. Both of these molecules contain a coiled-coil domain located within the amino-terminus region and a JAB (Domain in Jun kinase activation domain binding protein and proteasomal subunits) domain at the carboxy-terminus. We show that this novel molecule, which we have designated AMSH-2, is widely expressed and its overexpression potentiates activation of TGF-β-dependent promoters. Coimmunoprecipitation studies indicated that Smad7 and Smad2, but not Smad3 or 4, interact with AMSH-2. We show that overexpression of AMSH-2 decreases the inhibitory effect of Smad7 on TGF-β signaling. Finally, we demonstrate that knocking down AMSH-2 expression by RNA interference decreases the activation of 3TP-lux reporter in response to TGF-β.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This report implicates AMSH and AMSH-2 as a novel family of molecules that positively regulate the TGF-β signaling pathway. Our results suggest that this effect could be partially explained by AMSH-2 mediated decrease of the action of Smad7 on TGF-β signaling pathway.</p>
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