Transcription factor GABP/NRF-2 controlling biogenesis of mitochondria regulates basal expression of peroxiredoxin V but the mitochondrial function of peroxiredoxin V is dispensable in the dog

Abstract

Peroxiredoxins (PRDXs) represent a conserved family of six antioxidant proteins which are widely expressed in different organisms. Human PRDX5 is detected in the cytosol and nucleus and can also target peroxisomes and mitochondria. However, it remains unknown if mitochondrial localization of PRDX5 is essential for its functions. Here we studied whether the known regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis, transcription factor GABP/NRF-2, is required for the basal expression of the human PRDX5 gene and what the significance is of the mitochondrial targeting of the PRDX5 protein. It was found that mutation-mediated inactivation of all potential binding sites for GAPB in the PRDX5 promoter lead to ∼80% inhibition of its basal activity in a reporter gene assay. Co-transfection of plasmids expressing GABP-alpha and GABP-beta stimulated activity of the non-mutated PRDX5 promoter but had no effect on the mutated promoter, suggesting that basal expression of the human PRDX5 gene is regulated by GABP. We found that the dog c-Myc-tagged PRDX5 did not target the mitochondria of human cells. Endogenously expressed PRDX5 also showed no association with mitochondria in the dog cells. It appears, therefore, that during evolution the dog PRDX5 gene lost its upstream ATG codon and mitochondrial targeting signal without major functional consequences.