SHARP is a novel component of the Notch/RBP-Jκ signalling pathway

Notch proteins are the receptors for an evolutionarily highly conserved signalling pathway that regulates numerous cell fate decisions during development. Signal transduction involves the presenilin-dependent intracellular processing of Notch and nuclear translocation of the intracellular domain of Notch, Notch-IC. Notch-IC associates with the DNA-binding protein RBP-Jκ/CBF-1 to activate transcription of Notch target genes. In the absence of Notch signalling, RBP-Jκ/CBF-1 acts as a transcriptional repressor through the recruitment of histone deacetylase (HDAC) corepressor complexes. We identified SHARP as an RBP-Jκ/CBF-1-interacting corepressor in a yeast two-hybrid screen. In cotransfection experiments, SHARP-mediated repression was sensitive to the HDAC inhibitor TSA and facilitated by SKIP, a highly conserved SMRT and RBP-Jκ-interacting protein. SHARP repressed Hairy/Enhancer of split (HES)-1 promoter activity, inhibited Notch-1-mediated transactivation and rescued Notch-1-induced inhibition of primary neurogenesis in Xenopus laevis embryos. Based on our data, we propose a model in which SHARP is a novel component of the HDAC corepressor complex, recruited by RBP-Jκ to repress transcription of target genes in the absence of activated Notch.