Polo-Like Kinases Mediate Cell Survival in Mitochondrial Dysfunction
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Polo-like kinases mediate cell survival in mitochondrial dysfunction Takumi Matsumotoa,1, Ping-yuan Wanga,1, Wenzhe Maa, Ho Joong Sunga, Satoaki Matobab, and Paul M. Hwanga,2 aTranslational Medicine Branch, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892; and bCardiovascular Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan Edited by Solomon H. Snyder, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, and approved July 10, 2009 (received for review April 16, 2009) Cancer cells often display defects in mitochondrial respiration, thus significant respiration (Fig. S1). For the described in vitro the identification of pathways that promote cell survival under this experiments, one representative SCO2-/- cell line was used. metabolic state may have therapeutic implications. Here, we report However, all significant findings were reproduced or confirmed that the targeted ablation of mitochondrial respiration markedly using at least one additional SCO2-/- cell line that was obtained increases expression of Polo-like kinase 2 (PLK2) and that it is by an independent homologous recombination event to rule out required for the in vitro growth of these nonrespiring cells. clonal variability. Furthermore, we identify PLK2 as a kinase that phosphorylates In an attempt to identify genes associated with the cell cycle Ser-137 of PLK1, which is sufficient to mediate this survival signal. that may enable the survival of SCO2-/- cells after disruption of In vivo, knockdown of PLK2 in an isogenic human cell line with a respiration, we compared microarray gene expression of respir- modest defect in mitochondrial respiration eliminates xenograft ing SCO2ϩ/ϩ and nonrespiring SCO2-/- HCT116 human colon formation, indicating that PLK2 activity is necessary for growth of cancer cells (Table S1). PLK2 was the most highly expressed cells with compromised respiration. Our findings delineate a mi- gene in the SCO2-/- cells (Table S1), and two features made it tochondrial dysfunction responsive cell cycle pathway critical for stand out as a potential stress-responsive gene for cell survival determining cancer cell outcome. signaling. PLK2 is essential for cell viability in the setting of DNA damage but not under normal conditions (15), and interestingly, cell cycle ͉ respiration ͉ sco2 it had also been reported to be regulated by calcium in a model of synaptic plasticity (16). Because calcium is a well-established itochondrial dysfunction with increased dependence on mitochondrial retrograde signal (17, 18), PLK2 appeared to be Mglycolysis is frequently observed in cancer cells, and a strong candidate gene that could mediate cell survival signaling significant advances have been made to clarify the genetic basis in mitochondrial dysfunction. for this metabolic phenomenon (1, 2). This increase in glycolysis The increased expression of PLK2 in the SCO2-/- cell was may represent a compensatory mechanism responding to the confirmed by both mRNA and protein levels (Fig. 1 A and B). bioenergetic stress of decreased oxidative phosphorylation as We stably re-expressed SCO2 cDNA in SCO2-/- cells to rescue initially described by Warburg (3). Analogous to the importance respiration (Fig. S1B) and observed a concomitant decrease in of cell cycle checkpoints in determining cell fate after DNA PLK2 expression (Fig. 1 A and B). To test whether PLK2 is damage, the regulation of the cell cycle by signals initiated by generally inducible by disruption of respiration, we added block- ϩ ϩ mitochondrial dysfunction may similarly govern outcome (4, 5). ers of mitochondrial complex I, III, or IV to SCO2 / cells and Thus, insights into the mediators that enable cell growth after observed increased PLK2 mRNA in response to each agent disruption of respiration may help advance our understanding of compared to control (Fig. 1A). We next considered how dis- cancer biology with potential therapeutic applications. ruption of respiration might trigger PLK2 expression. Because of To investigate the adaptive changes associated with mitochon- the previous association between PLK2 expression and calcium drial dysfunction, we disrupted SCO2, a metallochaperone gene in neurons (16), we measured cytosolic-free calcium in SCO2-/- essential for cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV) assembly and cells using the Fluo-4 a.m. calcium indicator. Compared to respiration (6), in a human colon cancer cell line (SCO2-/- wild-type cells, nonrespiring SCO2-/- cells had significantly HCT116 cell line). Unlike mitochondrial dysfunction induced by elevated calcium levels (Fig. S2A). When the intracellular the depletion of the entire mitochondrial genome (mtDNA), calcium was lowered using a membrane-permeable calcium somatic cell homologous recombination allowed us to selectively chelator BAPTA/AM, PLK2 mRNA expression decreased in a ablate respiration through disruption of a single nuclear gene, dose-dependent manner (Fig. S2B). Thus, our data indicate that providing us with paired isogenic cell lines for comparison. In elevated intracellular calcium associated with the disruption of this respiration-deficient context, Polo-like kinase 2 (PLK2) was mitochondrial function in SCO2-/- cells is a major trigger for the most highly expressed gene in SCO2-/- cells compared to PLK2 expression. respiring wild-type SCO2ϩ/ϩ cells. PLK2 belongs to a family of cell cycle Ser/Thr kinases represented by PLK1, the prototypical PLK2 Preferentially Phosphorylates PLK1 Ser-137. To identify down- member overexpressed in many human cancers (7–9). Here, we stream mediators of PLK2 signaling, we performed a kinase identify PLK2 as a kinase for PLK1 and report that the phos- substrate screen using purified PLK2. Unexpectedly, the optimal phorylation of PLK1 Ser-137 is sufficient to mediate the signal necessary for survival of cells with compromised respiration. Author contributions: T.M., P.-y.W., and P.M.H. designed research; T.M., P.-y.W., W.M., and H.J.S. performed research; T.M., P.-y.W., and S.M. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; Results T.M., P.-y.W., W.M., H.J.S., and P.M.H. analyzed data; and P.-y.W. and P.M.H. wrote the Mitochondrial Dysfunction Induces PLK2 Expression. Using the so- paper. matic cell homologous recombination technique (10–13), we The authors declare no conflict of interest. disrupted the remaining wild-type allele of the SCO2 gene, This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. known to be essential for mitochondrial respiration (6), using the 1T.M. and P.-y.W. contributed equally to this work. human colon cancer HCT116 SCO2ϩ/- cell line that we had 2To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]. previously reported (14). We confirmed disruption of both This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/ copies of SCO2 allele by genomic PCR and by the absence of 0904229106/DCSupplemental. 14542–14546 ͉ PNAS ͉ August 25, 2009 ͉ vol. 106 ͉ no. 34 www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.0904229106 Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021 SCO2 +/+ SCO2 +/- SCO2 -/- A P<0.01 8 A 8 * 6 NS 6 shRNA 4 4 * * 2 PLK2 2 shRNA Relative PLK2 mRNA PLK2 Relative 0 0 SCO2: +/+ -/- -/- CTL I III IV (+SCO2) Inhibited complex B P<0.01 P<0.02 100 (+SCO2) Kinase assay BCSCO2: +/+ -/- -/- PLK2: SCO2 - - + 80 ATP: - + + PLK2 PLK1- 60 PLK1 S137-P 40 PLK1-S137-P PLK1- T210-P number Colony % of NS shRNA % 20 PLK1-T210-P PLK1 Actin 0 shRNA: NS PLK2 NS PLK2 NS PLK2 D SCO2 -/- SCO2 +/+ SCO2 +/+ SCO2 +/- SCO2 -/- shRNA Over- knockdown expression L C SCO2: +/+ -/- +/- T NS PLK2 GFP PLK2 C e v PLK2 shRNA - + - + - + - + - + i t PLK2 i Time (d) 4 4 0 2 4 os P 37 PLK1 Pro- caspase 3 PLK1-S137-P 26 Cleaved- 19 PLK1-T210-P caspase 3 15 HMGB1 Actin in medium Fig. 1. Disruption of mitochondrial respiration increases expression of PLK2 Fig. 2. PLK2 promotes the survival of cells with mitochondrial dysfunction. that phosphorylates Ser-137 of PLK1. (A) PLK2 mRNA expression analyzed by (A) After being transduced with control nonspecific (NS) or PLK2-specific RT-PCR in cells with genetic and pharmacologic disruption of respiration. shRNA lentivirus to knockdown PLK2, equal numbers of cells were cultured SCO2ϩ/ϩ cell respiration was inhibited by complex I, III, or IV blockers: and then visualized by crystal violet staining. (B) Quantification of colony Rotenone (100 nM); antimycin A (100 ng/mL); or sodium azide (500 M), formation following PLK2 knockdown in SCO2ϩ/ϩ, SCO2ϩ/-, and SCO2-/- respectively. (*) denotes P Ͻ 0.01 versus control (CTL). Mean Ϯ SD, n ϭ 4. (B) cells. Mean Ϯ SD, n ϭ 3. (C) Cells transduced with the indicated shRNA Confirmation of SCO2 and PLK2 protein expression in SCO2ϩ/ϩ, SCO2-/-, and lentivirus were subcultured in fresh medium. After the indicated culture times, after rescue of respiration by re-expression of SCO2 (ϩSCO2) in SCO2-/- cells. equivalent amounts of culture media and cell lysates were measured for (C) In vitro phosphorylation of PLK1 by PLK2 (slot blot). (D) Effect on PLK1 HMGB1 release (representing necrosis) and caspase 3 cleavage products (rep- phosphorylation by PLK2-specific or control nonspecific (NS) shRNA lentiviral resenting apoptosis), respectively, by western blotting. SCO2ϩ/ϩ cells were knockdown of PLK2 in SCO2-/- cells. Conversely, the effect of PLK2 or control treated for 24 h with 5-fluorouracil as positive control (CTL) for apoptosis. GFP lentivirus overexpression in SCO2ϩ/ϩ cells. To further confirm that PLK2 phosphorylates PLK1-S137 in peptide substrate belonged to another PLK family member, cells, we examined the effect of depleting PLK2 in SCO2-/- cells specifically, Ser-137 in the catalytic domain of PLK1 (PLK1- by using shRNA lentivirus or the effect of overexpressing PLK2 S137) (Table S2). Our in vitro phosphorylation result was in SCO2ϩ/ϩ cells by using PLK2 lentivirus. We observed good supported by higher PLK1-S137-P levels despite lower total concordance between PLK2 and PLK1-S137-P levels but not to PLK1 protein in SCO2-/- cells compared to SCO2ϩ/ϩ cells (Fig.