AKT3-Mediated IWS1 Phosphorylation Promotes the Proliferation of EGFR-Mutant Lung Adenocarcinomas Through Cell Cycle-Regulated U2AF2 RNA Splicing ✉ Georgios I
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ARTICLE https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24795-1 OPEN AKT3-mediated IWS1 phosphorylation promotes the proliferation of EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinomas through cell cycle-regulated U2AF2 RNA splicing ✉ Georgios I. Laliotis 1,2,3,11 , Evangelia Chavdoula1,2, Maria D. Paraskevopoulou4, Abdul Kaba1,2, Alessandro La Ferlita1,2,5, Satishkumar Singh2,6, Vollter Anastas 1,2,7, Keith A. Nair II 1,2, Arturo Orlacchio1,2, Vasiliki Taraslia4,12, Ioannis Vlachos8,13, Marina Capece1,2, Artemis Hatzigeorgiou8, Dario Palmieri1,2, 1234567890():,; Christos Tsatsanis3,9, Salvatore Alaimo 5, Lalit Sehgal 2,6, David P. Carbone 2,10, Vincenzo Coppola 1,2 & ✉ Philip N. Tsichlis 1,2,7 AKT-phosphorylated IWS1 regulates alternative RNA splicing via a pathway that is active in lung cancer. RNA-seq studies in lung adenocarcinoma cells lacking phosphorylated IWS1, identified a exon 2-deficient U2AF2 splice variant. Here, we show that exon 2 inclusion in the U2AF2 mRNA is a cell cycle-dependent process that is regulated by LEDGF/SRSF1 splicing complexes, whose assembly is controlled by the IWS1 phosphorylation-dependent deposition of histone H3K36me3 marks in the body of target genes. The exon 2-deficient U2AF2 mRNA encodes a Serine-Arginine-Rich (RS) domain-deficient U2AF65, which is defective in CDCA5 pre-mRNA processing. This results in downregulation of the CDCA5-encoded protein Sororin, a phosphorylation target and regulator of ERK, G2/M arrest and impaired cell proliferation and tumor growth. Analysis of human lung adenocarcinomas, confirmed activation of the pathway in EGFR-mutant tumors and showed that pathway activity correlates with tumor stage, histologic grade, metastasis, relapse after treatment, and poor prognosis. 1 Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. 2 The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center- Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, Columbus, OH, USA. 3 School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece. 4 Molecular Oncology Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA. 5 Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Bioinformatics Unit, University of Catania, Catania, Italy. 6 Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. 7 Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Program in Genetics, Boston, MA, USA. 8 DIANA-Lab, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Athens, Greece. 9 Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Heraklion, Crete, Greece. 10 Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, The Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA. 11Present address: Department of Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. 12Present address: Center of Basic Research, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece. 13Present address: Department Of Pathology, Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard ✉ Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. email: [email protected]; [email protected] NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | (2021) 12:4624 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24795-1 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications 1 ARTICLE NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24795-1 he higher complexity of the proteome relative to the gen- genome sequencing of 183 lung adenocarcinomas in one study, ome is due to multiple factors, one of which is RNA identified somatic mutations in the splicing factors U2AF1 and T 1 splicing . At least 97% of the genes in the human genome RBM10 and in several epigenetic factors, which may also regulate have introns2 and more than 95% of them undergo alternative RNA splicing26. Such mutations may render the cancer cells RNA splicing3. RNA splicing therefore plays a critical role in vulnerable to modulators of the core splicing machinery, as determining the biological phenotype4. Several additional obser- suggested by experiments showing that H3B-8800, a recently vations also support the importance of alternative RNA splicing described modulator of SF3B1, preferentially kills cancer cells in biology. First, the pattern of alternative RNA splicing changes with mutations in spliceosomal components. Mechanistically, during differentiation and many of these changes contribute to H3B-8800 may function by promoting the retention of short GC- the differentiation process and/or the phenotype of the differ- rich introns, in the mRNA of mutant cells27. entiated cells5. In addition, cell survival and proliferation signals Activating mutations in epidermal growth factor receptor may function by regulating alternative RNA splicing6. Finally, (EGFR) and Kirsten rat sarcoma (KRAS) are the most common changes in alternative RNA splicing caused by mutations in cis- genetic alterations in NSCLC with 69% of the tumors harboring acting regulatory elements, such as splicing enhancers or silen- mutations in these genes. Both types of mutations activate mul- cers, and changes in the expression and/or post-translational tiple signaling pathways, including the AKT and the ERK path- modification of RNA splicing regulators have been linked to the ways and both carry poor prognosis. Data in this report delineate pathogenesis of several diseases, including cancer7–9. a pathway, which regulates alternative RNA splicing in lung Two complementary molecular mechanisms may contribute to adenocarcinomas, and they show that the influence of the path- alternative RNA splicing, the rate of transcription and chromatin way on the biology of tumors harboring EGFR mutations is more modifications in the body of transcribed genes. Splicing occurs robust, than its influence on the biology of tumors harboring cotranscriptionally and when the rate of transcription is high, it KRAS mutations. increases the probability for exons that are not efficiently spliced, We had previously shown that the transcription elongation to be spliced out of the mature transcript10. Also, chromatin factors IWS1 and AKT play a central role in the regulation of the modifications are recognized by readers of epigenetic marks, alternative splicing of FGFR2, by promoting the skipping of exon which form the nucleus for the assembly of molecular complexes 8 from the mature FGFR2 mRNA transcript. The exclusion of the that bind to, and functionally regulate RNA-associated enhancers FGFR2 exon 8 depends on the phosphorylation of IWS1 by AKT or silencers of splicing, perhaps by altering the rate of assembly (primarily AKT3) on Ser720/Thr721, which recruits SETD2 to an and the composition of spliceosomal complexes11–13. IWS1-containing complex in the C-terminal domain (CTD) of One cellular function, which interfaces with the RNA splicing RNA polymerase II. This results in the trimethylation of histone machinery, is the cell cycle14. The connection between RNA H3 at K36 in the body of the transcribed FGFR2 gene, which splicing and the cell cycle was originally suggested by experiments triggers the skipping of exon 8 from the mature transcript. As a in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which showed that the follow-up to this study, we proceeded to address the global effects impact of mutations in the cell cycle gene cdc5, can be suppressed of IWS1 and IWS1 phosphorylation in lung adenocarcinomas. To by removing the intron of the tubulin-encoding gene TUB115. this end, we carried out an RNA-seq experiment in the lung Progression through the cell cycle depends on periodic changes of adenocarcinoma cell line NCI-H522, in which IWS1 was either gene function, which can be achieved by multiple mechanisms, knocked down or replaced by its phosphorylation site mutant one of which is the periodic modulation of RNA splicing and S720A/T721A. The results of this analysis revealed that exon spliceosomal components14. Importantly, some of the changes in inclusion was significantly more common than the exon skipping RNA splicing are regulated by periodic shifts in the expression we observed with the FGFR2 gene. One of the genes undergoing and/or the activity of known cell cycle regulators, such as the exon inclusion was the U2AF2 gene, which encodes the core Aurora kinases16, the large RS domain-containing protein SON17, splicing factor U2AF6528–30. Exon inclusion was also under the and the RNA-recognition motif (RRM)-containing proteins control of SETD2 and histone H3K36 trimethylation. However, TgRRM118 and CLK114. Despite the fact that a connection the reader of the histone H3K36me3 mark was the p52 isoform of between RNA splicing and the regulation of the cell cycle has LEDGF12, which interacts with the RNA-binding protein already been established, our understanding of the mechanisms SRSF131. Therefore, although the chromatin-modification mark and the consequences of RNA splicing during cell cycle pro- promoting exon inclusion is the same as the mark promoting gression, remains rudimentary. Exploring the links between RNA exon exclusion, the effector complexes assembled on H3K36me3 splicing and the cell cycle is likely to yield important information, in the two cases are different. The alternatively spliced exon 2 with a significant impact in our understanding of human disease, encodes the U2AF65 N-terminal serine–arginine-rich domain especially cancer. (RS domain), which is required for the interaction between Shifts in RNA splicing play an important role in many types of U2AF65 and the splicing cofactor Prp1932–35. The binding of human cancer, including non-small-cell lung cancer