TRAF-interacting protein with forkhead-associated domain (TIFA) transduces DNA damage-induced activation of NF-κB.

DNA damage-induced NF-κB activation and the secretion of inflammatory cytokines play crucial roles in carcinogenesis and cellular senescence. However, the underlying mechanisms, especially the initial sensors and transducers connecting the nuclear DNA damage signal with cytoplasmic NF-κB activation remain incompletely understood. Here, we report that TRAF-interacting protein with forkhead-associated domain (TIFA), an established NF-κB activator in the cytosol, unexpectedly exhibited nuclear translocation and accumulation on damaged chromatin following genotoxic stress. Accordingly, we also found that DNA damage-induced transcriptional activation and the resulting secretion of classic NF-κB targets, including interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8, was greatly enhanced in TIFA-overexpressing cells compared with control cells. Mechanistically, DNA damage-induced TIFA phosphorylation at threonine 9 (pThr-9), and this phosphorylation event, involving the pThr-binding forkhead-associated domain, was crucial for its enrichment on damaged chromatin and subsequent NF-κB activation. Moreover, in conjunction with its partner protein, the E3 ligase TNF receptor-associated factor 2 (TRAF2), TIFA relayed the DNA damage signals by stimulating ubiquitination of NF-κB essential modulator (NEMO), whose sumoylation, phosphorylation, and ubiquitination were critical for NF-κB's response to DNA damage. Consistently, TRAF2 knockdown suppressed TIFA overexpression-enhanced NEMO ubiquitination under genotoxic stress, and a unphosphorylatable Thr-9-mutated TIFA variant had only minor effects on NEMO poly-ubiquitination. Finally, in agreement with the model of DNA damage-associated secretory senescence barrier against carcinogenesis, ectopic TIFA expression limited proliferation of multiple myeloma cancer cells. In conclusion our results indicate that TIFA functions as a key transducer in DNA damage-induced NF-κB activation.