Subtle distinct regulations of late erythroid molecular events by PI3K/AKT-mediated activation of Spi-1/PU.1 oncogene autoregulation loop

Spi-1/PU.1 oncogene is downregulated as proerythroblasts undergo terminal differentiation. Insertion of the Friend virus upstream of the Spi-1/PU.1 locus leads to the constitutive upregulation of Spi-1/PU.1, and a subsequent block in the differentiation of the affected erythroblasts. We have shown that sustained overexpression of Spi-1/PU.1 also inhibits the erythroid splicing of protein 4.1R exon 16, irrespective of chemical induction of differentiation. Here, we show a positive feedback loop that couples constitutive phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) signaling to high expression of Spi-1/PU.1 in Friend erythroleukemia cells. Inhibition of PI3K/AKT results in Spi-1/PU.1 downregulation in a stepwise manner and induces cell differentiation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays further supported the positive autoregulatory effect of Spi-1/PU.1. Mutational analysis indicated that Ser41, but not Ser148, is necessary for Spi-1/PU.1-mediated repression of hemoglobin expression, whereas both Ser residues are required for Spi-1/PU.1 inhibition of the erythroid splicing event. We further show that inhibition of the erythroid transcriptional and splicing events are strictly dependent on distinct Spi-1/PU.1 phosphorylation modifications rather than Spi-1/PU.1 expression level per se . Our data further support the fact that Spi-1/PU.1 inhibits 4.1R erythroid splicing through two different pathways, and bring new insights into the extracellular signal impact triggered by erythropoietin on late erythroid regulatory program, including pre-mRNA splicing.