The retinoblastoma protein-associated transcription repressor RBaK interacts with the androgen receptor and enhances its transcriptional activity.

In search of potential androgen receptor coregulators we performed a yeast two-hybrid screening using the androgen receptor ligand-binding domain as bait and a human prostate cDNA library as prey and found that the carboxy-terminal domain of retinoblastoma-associated Krüppel protein (RbaK), a member of the Krüppel zinc finger protein family, interacts in a ligand-dependent way with the ligand-binding domain of the androgen receptor. RBaK was recently identified as a transcriptional regulator that interacts with the retinoblastoma protein and thereby influences E2F regulated transcription. The interaction of RBaK with the androgen receptor was further documented using mammalian two-hybrid experiments, in vitro binding studies and coimmunoprecipitation. Finally, we demonstrated that both RBaK and the retinoblastoma protein coactivate androgen receptor-mediated transcription in cotransfection experiments. In conclusion, our data show that RBaK interacts with the androgen receptor and increases its transcriptional activity. Moreover, the double interaction of RBaK with the retinoblastoma protein and with the androgen receptor provides a novel link between the androgen receptor and the regulation of the cell cycle.