Comparative analysis of p73 and p53 regulation and effector functions

p53 is mutated in ~50% of human cancers, whereas mutations of the related p73 gene are rare. p73 can activate p53-responsive promoters and induce apoptosis when overexpressed in certain p53-deficient tumor cells. We show that p73 isoforms, p73α and p73β, can each induce permanent growth arrest with markers of replicative senescence when overexpressed in a tetracycline-regulatable manner in human cancer cells lacking functional p53. Human homologue of mouse double minute 2 gene product (hMDM2), but not an NH₂-terminal deletion mutant, coimmunoprecipated with p73α or p73β, and inhibited p73 transcriptional activity as with p53. In contrast to p53, ectopically expressed hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged p73 proteins were not stabilized by treatment with several DNA damaging agents. Furthermore, unlike normal p53, which increases in response to DNA damage due to enhanced protein stability in MCF7 cells, endogenous p73 protein levels were not increased in these cells under the same conditions. Thus, although p73 has an ability, comparable to that of p53, to suppress tumor cell growth in p53-deficient cells, p73 induction is regulated differently from p53. These findings suggest that the selective pressures for p53 rather than p73 inactivation in tumors may reflect their differential responses to stresses such as DNA damage, rather than their capacities to induce permanent growth arrest or apoptosis programs.