TGFβ1-Induced EMT in the MCF10A Mammary Epithelial Cell Line Model Is Executed Independently of SNAIL1 and ZEB1 but Relies on JUNB-Coordinated Transcriptional Regulation

ABSTRACT: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) fosters cancer cell invasion and metastasis, the main cause of cancer-related mortality. Growing evidence that SNAIL and ZEB transcription factors, typically portrayed as master regulators of EMT, may be dispensable for this process, led us to re-investigate its mechanistic underpinnings. For this, we used an unbiased computational ap-proach that integrated time-resolved analyses of chromatin structure and differential gene ex-pression, to predict transcriptional regulators of TGFβ1-inducible EMT in the MCF10A mam-mary epithelial cell line model. Bioinformatic analyses indicated comparatively minor contri-butions of SNAIL proteins and ZEB1 to TGFβ1-induced EMT, whereas the AP-1 subunit JUNB was anticipated to have a much larger impact. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated loss-of-function studies confirmed that TGFβ1-induced EMT proceeded independently of SNAIL proteins and ZEB1. In contrast, JUNB was necessary and sufficient for EMT in MCF10A cells, but not in A549 lung can-cer cells, indicating cell-type-specificity of JUNB EMT-regulatory capacity. Nonetheless, the JUNB-dependence of EMT-associated transcriptional reprogramming in MCF10A cells allowed to define a gene expression signature which was regulated by TGFβ1 in diverse cellular back-grounds, showed positively correlated expression with TGFβ signaling in multiple cancer tran-scriptomes, and was predictive of patient survival in several cancer types. Altogether, our find-ings provide novel mechanistic insights into the context-dependent control of TGFβ1-driven EMT and thereby may lead to improved diagnostic and therapeutic options.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE210496 | GEO | 2023/01/17

REPOSITORIES: GEO