Immune differentiation regulator p100 tunes NF-kB responses to TNF

Stringent regulation of TNF signaling prevents aberrant inflammation. TNF engages the canonical NF-kB pathway for activating the RelA:p50 heterodimer, which mediates specific expressions of pro-inflammatory and immune response genes. Importantly, the NF-kB system discriminates between time-varied TNF inputs. Negative feedback regulators of the canonical pathway, including IkBa, thought to ensure transient RelA:p50 responses to brief TNF stimulations. The noncanonical NF-kB pathway controls a separate RelB activity associated with immune differentiation. In a systems modeling approach, we uncovered an unexpected role of p100, a constituent of the noncanonical pathway, in TNF signaling. Brief TNF stimulation of p100-deficient cells produced an additional late NF-kB activity composed of the RelB:p50 heterodimer, which distorted the TNF-induced gene-expression program. Periodic TNF pulses augmented this RelB:p50 activity, which was reinforced by NF-kB-dependent RelB synthesis. In sum, the NF-kB system seems to engage distantly related molecular species for enforcing dynamical and gene controls of immune-activating TNF signaling. Overall design: There are 9 samples in total. Every time point has two replictes. The Input sample is the control and it is the combined input sample from the two replicates.