Selective autophagic receptor p62 regulates the abundance of transcriptional coregulator ARIP4 during nutrient starvation

Transcriptional coregulators contribute to several processes involving nuclear receptor transcriptional regulation. The transcriptional coregulator androgen receptor-interacting protein 4 (ARIP4) interacts with nuclear receptors and regulates their transcriptional activity. In this study, we identified p62 as a major interacting protein partner for ARIP4 in the nucleus. Nuclear magnetic resonance analysis demonstrated that ARIP4 interacts directly with the ubiquitin-associated (UBA) domain of p62. ARIP4 and ubiquitin both bind to similar amino acid residues within UBA domains; therefore, these proteins may possess a similar surface structure at their UBA-binding interfaces. We also found that p62 is required for the regulation of ARIP4 protein levels under nutrient starvation conditions. We propose that p62 is a novel binding partner for ARIP4, and that its binding regulates the cellular protein level of ARIP4 under conditions of metabolic stress.