Project description:It has been recognized that BRCA1, in the form of the BRCA1/BARD1 heterodimer, acting as an ubiquitin E3 ligase offered a possible mechanism to explain its pleiotrophic nature of BRCA1 activity. Our observation that mice lacking BRCA1 enzymatic activity are viable apart from male sterility was unexpected. Our results suggest that the E3 ligase activity of BRCA1 is largely dispensable for normal development and is not essential for all BRCA1 functions. Thus, many of the known and unknown functions of BRCA1 are likely to be mediated independent of its ability to catalyze ubiquitination. The genome copy number patterns were studied on the mice tumors that lacks E3 ubiqitin ligase activity of BRCA1 and were compared to copy number profile of mice lacking p53 and both brca1 and p53. Array CGH was performed using Agilent mouse CGH microarray 244K kit. Genomic DNA isolated from tumor tissue and its corresponding mouse tail were labelled with two different dyes and hybridized simultaneously on to microarray slides to perform comparitive genomic hybridization.
Project description:It has been recognized that BRCA1, in the form of the BRCA1/BARD1 heterodimer, acting as an ubiquitin E3 ligase offered a possible mechanism to explain its pleiotrophic nature of BRCA1 activity. Our observation that mice lacking BRCA1 enzymatic activity are viable apart from male sterility was unexpected. Our results suggest that the E3 ligase activity of BRCA1 is largely dispensable for normal development and is not essential for all BRCA1 functions. Thus, many of the known and unknown functions of BRCA1 are likely to be mediated independent of its ability to catalyze ubiquitination. The genome copy number patterns were studied on the mice tumors that lacks E3 ubiqitin ligase activity of BRCA1 and were compared to copy number profile of mice lacking p53 and both brca1 and p53.
Project description:Deficiencies in the BRCA1 tumor suppressor gene are the main cause of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. BRCA1 is involved in the Homologous Recombination DNA repair pathway, and, together with BARD1, forms a heterodimer with ubiquitin E3 activity. The relevance of the BRCA1/BARD1 ubiquitin E3 activity for tumor suppression and DNA repair remains controversial and most efforts aimed to identify BRCA1/BARD1 ubiquitination substrates rely on indirect evidence. Here, we observed that the BRCA1/BARD1 ubiquitin E3 activity was not required for Homologous Recombination or resistance to Olaparib. Using TULIP2 methodology, which enables the direct identification of E3-specific ubiquitination substrates, we identified substrates for BRCA1/BARD1. PCNA is ubiquitinated by BRCA1/BARD1 in unperturbed conditions independently of RAD18, avoiding the formation of ssDNA gaps during DNA replication and promoting replication fork stability upon replication stress, solving the controversy about the function of BRCA1/BARD1 E3 activity in Homologous Recombination.
Project description:Deficiencies in the BRCA1 tumor suppressor gene are the main cause of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. BRCA1 is involved in the Homologous Recombination DNA repair pathway, and, together with BARD1, forms a heterodimer with ubiquitin E3 activity. The relevance of the BRCA1/BARD1 ubiquitin E3 activity for tumor suppression and DNA repair remains controversial and most efforts aimed to identify BRCA1/BARD1 ubiquitination substrates rely on indirect evidence. Here, we observed that the BRCA1/BARD1 ubiquitin E3 activity was not required for Homologous Recombination or resistance to Olaparib. Using TULIP2 methodology, which enables the direct identification of E3-specific ubiquitination substrates, we identified substrates for BRCA1/BARD1. We found that PCNA is ubiquitinated by BRCA1/BARD1 in unperturbed conditions independently of RAD18. PCNA ubiquitination by BRCA1/BARD1 avoids the formation of ssDNA gaps during DNA replication and promotes continuous DNA synthesis. These results address the controversy about the function of BRCA1/BARD1 E3 activity in Homologous Recombination.
Project description:The tumor suppressor BRCA1 regulates DNA damage responses and multiple other processes. Among these, BRCA1 heterodimerizes with BARD1 to ubiquitylate targets via its N-terminal RING domain. Here we show that BRCA1 promotes oxidative metabolism via degradation of Oct1, a transcription factor with pro-glycolytic/tumorigenic effects. BRCA1 E3 ubiquitin ligase mutation skews cells towards a glycolytic metabolic profile while elevating Oct1 protein. CRISPR-mediated Oct1 deletion reverts the glycolytic phenotype. RNAseq confirms the deregulation of metabolic genes. BRCA1 mediates direct Oct1 ubiquitylation and degradation, and mutation of two ubiquitylated Oct1 lysines insulates the protein against BRCA1-mediated destabilization. Oct1 deletion in MCF-7 breast cancer cells does not perturb growth in standard culture, but inhibits growth in soft agar and xenografts. Oct1 protein levels correlate positively with tumor aggressiveness, and inversely with BRCA1, in primary breast cancer samples. These results identify BRCA1 as an Oct1 ubiquitin ligase that catalyzes Oct1 degradation to promote oxidative metabolism.
Project description:The E3 ligase MDM2 promotes tumor growth and progression by inducing ubiquitin-mediated degradation of P53 and other tumor suppressing proteins. Here, we identified an MDM2-interacting lncRNA NRON, which promotes tumor formation by suppressing both P53-dependent and independent pathways. NRON binds to MDM2 and MDMX (MDM4) via two different stem-loops respectively and induces their heterogenous dimerization, thereby enhancing the E3 ligase activity of MDM2 towards its tumor suppressing substrates, including P53, RBI and NFATI, etc.
Project description:FBXW7 is and E3 ubiquitin ligase and is highly mutated in colorectal cancer. We used human colon organoids with engineered FBXW7 hotspot mutations to investigate novel targets of E3 ligase activity with a combined transcriptomic and proteomic approach uncovering the EGFR-MAPK pathway as highly regulated by the E3 ligase activity.
Project description:Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are promising targets for cancer therapy, while their individual actions remain incompletely understood. Here, we identify a role for HDAC2 in regulation of
MDM2 acetylation at previously uncharacterized lysines. Upon inactivation of HDAC2, this acetylation creates a structural signal in the lysine-rich domain of MDM2 to prevent the recognition and degradation of its downstream substrate, MCL-1 Ubiquitin Ligase E3 (MULE). This mechanism further reveals a therapeutic connection between the MULE ubiquitin ligase function and tumor suppression. Specifically, we show that HDAC inhibitor treatment promotes the accumulation of MULE, which diminishes the t(X;18) translocation-associated synovial sarcomagenesis by directly targeting the fusion product SS18-SSX for degradation. These results
uncover a new HDAC2-dependent pathway that integrates reversible acetylation signaling to the anticancer ubiquitin response.
Project description:Expression of the tumor suppressor protein BRCA1 is frequently lost in breast cancer patients, and the loss of its expression is associated with disruption of various critical functions in cells and cancer development. In the present study, we demonstrated that microarray analysis of cells with tumor suppressor candidate 4 (TUSC4) knockdown indicated critical changes such as cell cycle, cell death pathways and a global impact to cancer development. More importantly, we observed a clear cluster pattern of TUSC4-knockdown gene profiles with established homologous recombination (HR) repair defect signature. Additionally, TUSC4 protein can physically interact with E3 ligase Herc2 and prevents BRCA1 degradation via ubiquitination pathway. Knockdown of TUSC4 expression enhanced BRCA1 polyubiquitination, leading to BRCA1 protein degradation and a marked reduction in HR repair efficiency. Notably, ectopic expression of TUSC4 effectively suppressed the proliferation, invasion, and colony formation of breast cancer cells in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo. Furthermore, knockdown of TUSC4 expression transformed normal mammary epithelial cells and enhanced the sensitivity of U2OS cells to the treatment of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors. Therefore, TUSC4 may act as a bona fide tumor suppressor by regulating BRCA1 protein stability and function in breast cancer. Two groups of samples are included: 1.U2OS-shcontrol 2.U2OS-shTUSC4 knockdown. Gene expression profiles of U2OS-shTUSC4 cells were compared to that of parental U2OS-shcontrol cells.