Cross talk of heat shock and heavy metal regulatory pathways

Heavy metals induce transcription of human genes including those coding for metallothionein and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70). It has been suggested that these processes are mediated by metal-activated transcription factors, MTF-1 and HSF1, respectively, and are independent of each other. We raised an antibody against human MTF-1 which efficiently supershifts the protein-DNA complex formed by MTF-1 and its cognate binding sequence, MRE. We discovered that this antibody could also supershift complexes formed by HSF1 and its recognition sequence HSE, which suggested the involvement of MTF-1 in these complexes. This supershift was observed for HSF1/HSE complexes induced by Zn, Cd, Ag, and heat shock. Furthermore, overexpression of MTF-1 in HeLa cells markedly reduced metal-induced transcription from the hsp70-1 gene promoter which depends on HSF1. These data indicate that MTF-1 represses HSF1-mediated transcription probably through a direct protein–protein interaction, suggesting a cross talk of two lines of stress-responsive regulatory pathways.