Functional association of Nmi with Stat5 and Stat1 in IL-2- and IFNgamma-mediated signaling

Using the coiled-coil region of Stat5b as the bait in a yeast two-hybrid screen, we identified the association of Nmi, a protein of unknown function previously reported as an N-Myc interactor. We further show that Nmi interacts with all STATs except Stat2. We evaluated two cytokine systems, IL-2 and IFNgamma, and demonstrate that Nmi augments STAT-mediated transcription in response to these cytokines. Interestingly, Nmi lacks an intrinsic transcriptional activation domain; instead, Nmi enhances the association of CBP/p300 coactivator proteins with STAT1 and STAT5, and together with CBP/p300 can augment IL-2- and IFNgamma-dependent transcription. Therefore, our data not only reveal that Nmi can potentiate STAT-dependent transcription, but also suggest that it can augment coactivator protein recruitment to at least some members of a group of sequence-specific transcription factors.