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Yu Y, Farooq MS, Eberhart Meessen S, Jiang Y, Kato D, Zhan T, Weiss C, Seger R, Kang W, Zhang X, Yu J, Ebert MPA, Burgermeister E. Nuclear pore protein POM121 regulates subcellular localization and transcriptional activity of PPARγ. Cell Death Dis 2024; 15:7. [PMID: 38177114 PMCID: PMC10766976 DOI: 10.1038/s41419-023-06371-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2023] [Revised: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 12/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024]
Abstract
Manipulation of the subcellular localization of transcription factors by preventing their shuttling via the nuclear pore complex (NPC) emerges as a novel therapeutic strategy against cancer. One transmembrane component of the NPC is POM121, encoded by a tandem gene locus POM121A/C on chromosome 7. Overexpression of POM121 is associated with metabolic diseases (e.g., diabetes) and unfavorable clinical outcome in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARγ) is a transcription factor with anti-diabetic and anti-tumoral efficacy. It is inhibited by export from the nucleus to the cytosol via the RAS-RAF-MEK1/2-ERK1/2 signaling pathway, a major oncogenic driver of CRC. We therefore hypothesized that POM121 participates in the transport of PPARγ across the NPC to regulate its transcriptional activity on genes involved in metabolic and tumor control. We found that POM121A/C mRNA was enriched and POM121 protein co-expressed with PPARγ in tissues from CRC patients conferring poor prognosis. Its interactome was predicted to include proteins responsible for tumor metabolism and immunity, and in-silico modeling provided insights into potential 3D structures of POM121. A peptide region downstream of the nuclear localization sequence (NLS) of POM121 was identified as a cytoplasmic interactor of PPARγ. POM121 positivity correlated with the cytoplasmic localization of PPARγ in patients with KRAS mutant CRC. In contrast, POM121A/C silencing by CRISPR/Cas9 sgRNA or siRNA enforced nuclear accumulation of PPARγ and activated PPARγ target genes promoting lipid metabolism and cell cycle arrest resulting in reduced proliferation of human CRC cells. Our data suggest the POM121-PPARγ axis as a potential drugable target in CRC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanxiong Yu
- Department of Medicine II, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Mohammad S Farooq
- Department of Medicine II, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
- Department of Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Sabine Eberhart Meessen
- Department of Medicine II, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Yidan Jiang
- Department of Medicine II, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Dominik Kato
- Department of Medicine II, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Tianzuo Zhan
- Department of Medicine II, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Christel Weiss
- Department of Medical Statistics and Biomathematics, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Rony Seger
- Department of Immunology and Regenerative Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Wei Kang
- Department of Anatomical and Cellular Pathology, State Key Laboratory of Digestive Disease, Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Xiang Zhang
- Institute of Digestive Disease and Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, State Key Laboratory of Digestive Disease, Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Jun Yu
- Institute of Digestive Disease and Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, State Key Laboratory of Digestive Disease, Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Matthias P A Ebert
- Department of Medicine II, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
- DKFZ-Hector Institute, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
- Mannheim Institute for Innate Immunoscience (MI3), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
- Clinical Cooperation Unit Healthy Metabolism, Center of Preventive Medicine and Digital Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
- Mannheim Cancer Center (MCC), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Elke Burgermeister
- Department of Medicine II, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
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Ma C, Li C, Ma H, Yu D, Zhang Y, Zhang D, Su T, Wu J, Wang X, Zhang L, Chen CL, Zhang YE. Pan-cancer surveys indicate cell cycle-related roles of primate-specific genes in tumors and embryonic cerebrum. Genome Biol 2022; 23:251. [PMID: 36474250 PMCID: PMC9724437 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-022-02821-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 11/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Despite having been extensively studied, it remains largely unclear why humans bear a particularly high risk of cancer. The antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis predicts that primate-specific genes (PSGs) tend to promote tumorigenesis, while the molecular atavism hypothesis predicts that PSGs involved in tumors may represent recently derived duplicates of unicellular genes. However, these predictions have not been tested. RESULTS By taking advantage of pan-cancer genomic data, we find the upregulation of PSGs across 13 cancer types, which is facilitated by copy-number gain and promoter hypomethylation. Meta-analyses indicate that upregulated PSGs (uPSGs) tend to promote tumorigenesis and to play cell cycle-related roles. The cell cycle-related uPSGs predominantly represent derived duplicates of unicellular genes. We prioritize 15 uPSGs and perform an in-depth analysis of one unicellular gene-derived duplicate involved in the cell cycle, DDX11. Genome-wide screening data and knockdown experiments demonstrate that DDX11 is broadly essential across cancer cell lines. Importantly, non-neutral amino acid substitution patterns and increased expression indicate that DDX11 has been under positive selection. Finally, we find that cell cycle-related uPSGs are also preferentially upregulated in the highly proliferative embryonic cerebrum. CONCLUSIONS Consistent with the predictions of the atavism and antagonistic pleiotropy hypotheses, primate-specific genes, especially those PSGs derived from cell cycle-related genes that emerged in unicellular ancestors, contribute to the early proliferation of the human cerebrum at the cost of hitchhiking by similarly highly proliferative cancer cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chenyu Ma
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Chunyan Li
- School of Engineering Medicine, Key Laboratory of Big Data-Based Precision Medicine (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), and Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Big Data-Based Precision Medicine, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Huijing Ma
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Daqi Yu
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Yufei Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
- School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China
| | - Dan Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Tianhan Su
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Jianmin Wu
- Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Center for Cancer Bioinformatics, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing, 100142, China
| | - Xiaoyue Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, School of Basic Medicine Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Li Zhang
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, 102206, China
| | - Chun-Long Chen
- Institut Curie, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, CNRS UMR3244, Dynamics of Genetic Information, 75005, Paris, France
| | - Yong E Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, 102206, China.
- CAS Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650223, China.
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