Interaction of pro-apoptotic protein HGTD-P with heat shock protein 90 is required for induction of mitochondrial apoptotic cascades.

HGTD-P is a hypoxia-responsive pro-apoptotic protein that transmits hypoxic signals directly to mitochondria. When overexpressed, HGTD-P induces cell death via typical mitochondrial apoptotic cascades. However, much is unknown about post-transcriptional modification and signaling networks of HGTD-P in association with cell death-regulating proteins. We performed yeast two-hybrid screening to identify the molecules involved in HGTD-P-mediated cell death pathways. In this study, we show that heat shock protein 90 physically interacts with HGTD-P and that suppression of Hsp90 activity by low concentrations of geldanamycin reduced HGTD-P-induced mitochondrial catastrophe through inhibition of mitochondrial translocation of HGTD-P.