Identification of a novel cyclin required for the intrinsic apoptosis pathway in lymphoid cells.

We have identified an early step common to pathways activated by different forms of intrinsic apoptosis stimuli. It requires de novo synthesis of a novel cyclin, cyclin O, that forms active complexes primarily with Cdk2 upon apoptosis induction in lymphoid cells. Cyclin O expression precedes glucocorticoid and gamma-radiation-induced apoptosis in vivo in mouse thymus and spleen, and its overexpression induces caspase-dependent apoptosis in cultured cells. Knocking down the endogenous expression of cyclin O by shRNA leads to the inhibition of glucocorticoid and DNA damage-induced apoptosis due to a failure in the activation of apical caspases while leaving CD95 death receptor-mediated apoptosis intact. Our data demonstrate that apoptosis induction in lymphoid cells is one of the physiological roles of cyclin O and it does not act by perturbing a normal cellular process such as the cell cycle, the DNA damage checkpoints or transcriptional response to glucocorticoids.