Isolation of Xenopus HIF-prolyl 4-hydroxylase and rescue of a small-eye phenotype caused by Siah2 over-expression

Hypoxia is an important physiological condition during embryonic development. Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is the mediator of hypoxic response of cells. The prolyl hydroxylase (PHD) of HIF plays a key role in stabilizing of HIF and the oxygen homeostasis of organisms. In this study, we isolated two PHD proteins, PHD45 and PHD28, and characterized them during the embryonic development of Xenopus laevis, which is an excellent model for embryonic development because of the ease of embryonic manipulation and the feasibility of transgenesis. Based on amino acid sequences, Xenopus PHD45 and PHD28 were homologous with human PHD2 and PHD3, respectively. In embryonic development, PHD45 expression was complementary to that of PHD28. xHIF-1α protein level was at a maximum around stage 20 when expression of PHD45 disappeared, while expression of PHD28 reached a maximum at stage 20, suggesting that PHD28 is inducible by HIF-1α. Recently, Siah2 was found to be an ubiquitin ligase of PHD proteins and to regulate degradation of PHD proteins. Over-expression of xSiah2 decreased PHD45 but not PHD28 and caused the small-eye phenotype of Xenopus. Additional over-expression of PHD47 rescued the abnormality caused by xSiah2, suggesting that the level of expression or activity of PHD proteins is important to the maintenance of homeostasis in embryonic development.