Apoptosis-induced cleavage of beta-catenin by caspase-3 results in proteolytic fragments with reduced transactivation potential

Beta-catenin is a member of the Armadillo repeat protein family with a dual cellular function as a component of both the adherens junction complex and the Wnt/wingless signaling pathway. Here we show that beta-catenin is proteolytically cleaved during anoikis and staurosporine-induced apoptosis. Cleavage of beta-catenin was found to be caspase-dependent. Five cleavage products of beta-catenin were identified in vivo and after in vitro cleavage by caspase-3. Amino acid sequencing and mass spectrometry analysis indicated two caspase-3 cleavage sites at the C terminus and three further sites at the N terminus, whereas the central Armadillo repeat region remained unaffected. All beta-catenin cleavage products were still able to associate with E-cadherin and alpha-catenin and were found to be enriched in the cytoplasm. Functional analysis revealed that beta-catenin deletion constructs resembling the observed proteolytic fragments show a strongly reduced transcription activation potential when analyzed in gene reporter assays. We therefore conclude that an important role of the beta-catenin cleavage during apoptosis is the removal of its transcription activation domains to prevent its transcription activation potential.