Separate necdin domains bind ARNT2 and HIF1α and repress transcription

PWS is caused by the loss of expression of a set of maternally imprinted genes including NECDIN (NDN). NDN is expressed in post-mitotic neurons and plays an essential role in PWS as mouse models lacking only the Ndn gene mimic aspects of this disease. Patients haploid for SIM1 develop a PW-like syndrome. Here, we report that NDN directly interacts with ARNT2, a bHLH-PAS protein and dimer partner for SIM1. We also found that NDN can interact with HIF1α. We showed that NDN can repress transcriptional activation mediated by ARNT2:SIM1 as well as ARNT2:HIF1α. The N-terminal 115 residues of NDN are sufficient for interaction with the bHLH domains of ARNT2 or HIF1α but not for transcriptional repression. Using GAL4-NDN fusion proteins, we determined that NDN possesses multiple repression domains. We thus propose that NDN regulates neuronal function and hypoxic response by regulating the activities of the ARNT2:SIM1 and ARNT2:HIF1α dimers, respectively.