Construction of chimeric tumor suppressor p53 resistant to the dominant-negative interaction with p53 mutants

A chimeric p53 cDNA was constructed so that the fragment coding for 39 residues of the chicken p53 tetramerization domain replaced the corresponding region of human p53. The chimeric cDNA substantially inhibited the colony-forming ability of transfected human and mouse cells, suggesting a suppressor potential of its product. The chimeric p53 activated promoters containing p53-responsive elements. In contrast to wild-type human p53, the chimeric p53 remained capable of transcription activation in the presence of a dominant-negative mutant p53-His175. This makes the chimeric p53 a convenient model for elaborating gene therapy protocols for tumors with dominant-negative p53 forms. The chimeric p53 may be used to study the role of trans-dominance of p53 mutants in carcinogenesis and the interactions of p53 with related transcription factors (p73, p63).