TP53 exon-6 truncating mutations produce separation of function isoforms with pro-tumorigenic functions

  1. Raffaella Sordella  Is a corresponding author
  2. Nitin H Shirole
  3. Debjani Pal
  4. Edward R Kastenhuber
  5. Serif Senturk
  6. Joseph Boroda
  7. Paola Pisterzi
  8. Madison Miller
  9. Gustavo Munoz
  10. Marko Anderluh
  11. Marc Ladanyi
  12. Scott W Lowe
  1. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, United States
  2. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, United States
  3. University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract

TP53 truncating mutations are common in human tumors and are thought to give rise to p53-null alleles. Here, we show that TP53 exon-6 truncating mutations occur at higher than expected frequencies and produce proteins that lack canonical p53 tumor suppressor activities but promote cancer cell proliferation, survival, and metastasis. Functionally and molecularly, these p53 mutants resemble the naturally occurring alternative p53 splice variant, p53-psi. Accordingly, these mutants can localize to mitochondria where they promote tumor phenotypes by binding and activating the mitochondria inner pore permeability regulator, Cyclophilin D (CypD). Together, our studies reveal that TP53 exon-6 truncating mutations, contrary to current beliefs, act beyond p53 loss to promote tumorigenesis, and could inform the development of strategies to target cancers driven by these prevalent mutations.

Data availability

The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Raffaella Sordella

    Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, United States
    For correspondence
    sordella@cshl.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-9745-1227
  2. Nitin H Shirole

    Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Debjani Pal

    Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Edward R Kastenhuber

    Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Serif Senturk

    Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Joseph Boroda

    Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Paola Pisterzi

    Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Madison Miller

    Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Gustavo Munoz

    Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Marko Anderluh

    Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  11. Marc Ladanyi

    Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Scott W Lowe

    Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Funding

National Cancer Institute (NCI P01 CA129243-06)

  • Raffaella Sordella
  • Marc Ladanyi
  • Scott W Lowe

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All animal experiments were performed in accordance with National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Protocols were approved by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Animal Care and Use Committee (933922-1 Development of mouse models to study human lung cancer - integrated protocols).

Copyright

© 2016, Sordella et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 5,145
    views
  • 892
    downloads
  • 49
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Raffaella Sordella
  2. Nitin H Shirole
  3. Debjani Pal
  4. Edward R Kastenhuber
  5. Serif Senturk
  6. Joseph Boroda
  7. Paola Pisterzi
  8. Madison Miller
  9. Gustavo Munoz
  10. Marko Anderluh
  11. Marc Ladanyi
  12. Scott W Lowe
(2016)
TP53 exon-6 truncating mutations produce separation of function isoforms with pro-tumorigenic functions
eLife 5:e17929.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17929

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17929

Further reading

    1. Cancer Biology
    Jae Hun Shin, Jooyoung Park ... Alfred LM Bothwell
    Research Article

    Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Paneth cells provide stem cell niche factors in homeostatic conditions, but the underlying mechanisms of cancer stem cell niche development are unclear. Here, we report that Dickkopf-2 (DKK2) is essential for the generation of cancer cells with Paneth cell properties during colon cancer metastasis. Splenic injection of Dkk2 knockout (KO) cancer organoids into C57BL/6 mice resulted in a significant reduction of liver metastases. Transcriptome analysis showed reduction of Paneth cell markers such as lysozymes in KO organoids. Single-cell RNA sequencing analyses of murine metastasized colon cancer cells and patient samples identified the presence of lysozyme positive cells with Paneth cell properties including enhanced glycolysis. Further analyses of transcriptome and chromatin accessibility suggested hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha (HNF4A) as a downstream target of DKK2. Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing analysis revealed that HNF4A binds to the promoter region of Sox9, a well-known transcription factor for Paneth cell differentiation. In the liver metastatic foci, DKK2 knockout rescued HNF4A protein levels followed by reduction of lysozyme positive cancer cells. Taken together, DKK2-mediated reduction of HNF4A protein promotes the generation of lysozyme positive cancer cells with Paneth cell properties in the metastasized colon cancers.