Degradation of transcription factors, c-Jun and c-Fos, by calpain.

c-Jun protein, and AP1/PEA1 transcription factor component, is a typical short-lived protein, and like other short-lived proteins such as c-Fos, contains PEST regions. Calcium-dependent neutral protease (calpain), a candidate for the degradation of PEST-containing proteins, digests c-Jun and c-Fos efficiently in vitro. This is the first demonstration that transcription factors are substrates for calpain. The C-terminal portion of c-Jun is relatively resistant to calpain such that an 18kDa fragment, which includes the DNA binding domain, accumulates under moderate digestion conditions. The activity of c-Jun in cultured cells can be modified by changing the level of calpastatin, an endogenous calpain inhibitor, indicating that c-Jun is also a substrate for calpain in vivo.