Project description:Members of the Msi family of RNA-binding proteins have recently emerged as potent oncoproteins in a range of malignancies. MSI2 is highly expressed in hematopoietic cancers, where it is required for disease maintenance. In contrast to the hematopoietic system, colorectal cancers can express both Msi family members, MSI1 and MSI2. Here, we demonstrate that, in the intestinal epithelium, Msi1 and Msi2 have analogous oncogenic effects. Further, comparison of Msi1/2-induced gene expression programs and transcriptome-wide analyses of Msi1/2-RNA-binding targets reveal significant functional overlap, including induction of the PDK-Akt-mTORC1 axis. Ultimately, we demonstrate that concomitant loss of function of both MSI family members is sufficient to abrogate the growth of human colorectal cancer cells, and Msi gene deletion inhibits tumorigenesis in several mouse models of intestinal cancer. Our findings demonstrate that MSI1 and MSI2 act as functionally redundant oncoproteins required for the ontogeny of intestinal cancers.
Project description:Goal: Microsatellite-instable (MSI) tumors are one of the few cancers that respond to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB); however, the mechanism of MSI status development is unclear. Here, we report that protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) deletion or inactivation converted cold microsatellite-stable (MSS) into MSI tumors. Objectives: Using RNA sequencing data of three CT26-shppp2r1a data and a CT26-scr data, we demonstrate that these intestinal tumors display differential core driver pathways.
Project description:Loss of the APC tumor suppressor in the intestinal epithelium initiates the majority of human colorectal adenocarcinomas. Constitutive β-catenin activation is thought to underlie tumorigenesis induced by loss of APC, however β-catenin activation alone does not recapitulate all APC-loss phenotypes, suggesting that additional pathways are required. We demonstrate that aberrant activation of the Msi1 RNA binding protein occurs upon APC loss and that constitutive Msi1 activation alone is sufficient to phenocopy APC loss in the intestinal epithelium. Msi1 elicits these effects through binding of mRNAs encoding pleiotropic tumor suppressors resulting in promiscuous activation of quiescent intestinal stem cells, proliferative expansion of the stem cell compartment, crypt fission, and blocked differentiation. Further, we find these phenotypes to be largely dependent on mTORC1 activity, and demonstrate that loss of Msi activity is sufficient to abrogate tumorigenesis in mouse and human systems. Our findings implicate Msi1 as a central coordinator of APC loss-induced intestinal stem cell transformation and adenocarcinoma progression. 2 wild-type, 2 transgenic samples
Project description:The MSI2 RNA binding protein has recently emerged as a potent oncogene playing key roles in hematopoietic stem cell homeostasis and malignant hematopoiesis. Here we demonstrate that MSI2 is expressed in the intestinal stem cell compartment, that its expression is elevated in colorectal adenocarcinomas, and that MSI2 loss of function abrogates colorectal cancer cell growth. We thus examined the oncogenic consequences of MSI2 gain of function in the intestinal epithelium with a drug inducible mouse model. Strikingly, MSI2 induction alone was sufficient to phenocopy the majority of morphological and molecular consequences of acute loss of the APC tumor suppressor in the intestinal epithelium. We demonstrate that this phenotype is independent of both the activation of the other oncogenic Musashi family member, Msi1, and of canonical Wnt pathway activation. Transcriptome-wide RNA-binding analysis indicates that MSI2 acts as a pleiotropic inhibitor of known intestinal tumor suppressors including Lrig1, Bmpr1a, Cdkn1a, and Pten. Finally, we demonstrate that inhibition of the PDK-AKT-mTORC1 axis downstream of Pten rescues oncogenic consequences of MSI2 induction. Taken together, our findings identify MSI2 as a central component in an unappreciated oncogenic pathway promoting intestinal transformation. 2 wild-type samples, 2 TRE-Msi2 samples
Project description:Deciphering the mechanism of secondary cell wall/SCW formation in vascular plants is key to understanding their development and the molecular basis of biomass recalcitrance. Although a sophisticated network of transcription factors has been implicated in SCW synthesis in plants, little is known about the implication of RNA-binding proteins in this process. Here we report that two RNA-binding proteins homologous to the animal translational regulator Musashi, Musashi-Like2/MSIL2 and Musashi-Like4/MSIL4, function redundantly to control SCW formation in interfascicular fibers and the setting of biomass recalcitrance. We show that the disruption of MSIL2/4 (msil2-4 mutant) decreases the abundance of lignin in fibers and triggers an hypermethylation of glucuronoxylan that is linked to an over-accumulation of GlucuronoXylan Methyltransferase1/3 (GXM1/3) proteins.