RCAN3, a novel calcineurin inhibitor that down-regulates NFAT-dependent cytokine gene expression

The regulators of calcineurin (RCAN) proteins, previously known as calcipressins, have been considered to be a well conserved family from yeast to human based on the conservation of their FLISPP motif Here, after performing a RCAN comparative genomic analysis we propose the existence of a novel functionally closely related RCAN subfamily restricted to vertebrates, the other RCAN proteins being considered only as distantly related members of the family. In addition, while three paralogous RCAN genes are found in vertebrates, there is only one in the other members of Eukarya. Moreover, besides the FLISPP motif, these paralogous genes have two others conserved motifs, the Cn-inhibitor RCAN (CIC) and the PxlxxT, which are restricted to vertebrates. In humans, RCAN1 and RCAN2 bind and inhibit Cn through their C-terminal region. Given the high amino acid identity in this region among human RCANs, authors in the field have hypothesized a role for RCAN3 in inhibiting Cn activity. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that human RCAN3, encoded by the RCAN3 (also known as DSCRIL2) gene, interacts physically and functionally with Cn. This interaction takes place only through the RCAN3 CIC motif. Overexpression of this sequence inhibits Cn activity towards the nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) transcription factors and down-regulates NFAT-dependent cytokine gene expression in activated human Jurkat T cells. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.