Abstract
p53 is a tumor suppressor protein that acts as a transcription factor to regulate (either positively or negatively) a plethora of downstream target genes. Although its ability to induce protein coding genes is well documented, recent studies have implicated p53 in the regulation of non-coding RNAs, including both microRNAs (e.g. miR-34a) and long non-coding RNAs (e.g. lincRNA-p21). We have identified the non-protein coding locus PVT1 as a p53-inducible target gene. PVT1, a very large (>300 kb) locus located downstream of c-myc on chromosome 8q24, produces a wide variety of spliced non-coding RNAs as well as a cluster of six annotated microRNAs: miR-1204, miR-1205, miR-1206, miR-1207-5p, miR-1207-3p, and miR-1208. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), and luciferase assays reveal that p53 binds and activates a canonical response element within the vicinity of miR-1204. Consistently, we demonstrate the p53-dependent induction of endogenous PVT1 transcripts and consequent up-regulation of mature miR-1204. Finally, we have shown that ectopic expression of miR-1204 leads to increased p53 levels and causes cell death in a partially p53-dependent manner.