A Novel Isoform of the 8P22 Tumor Suppressor Gene DLC1 Suppresses Tumor Growth and Is Frequently Silenced in Multiple Common Tumors
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Oncogene (2011) 30, 1923–1935 & 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved 0950-9232/11 www.nature.com/onc ORIGINAL ARTICLE A novel isoform of the 8p22 tumor suppressor gene DLC1 suppresses tumor growth and is frequently silenced in multiple common tumors JSW Low1,2, Q Tao1,3,4,KMNg4, HK Goh1,2, X-S Shu4, WL Woo1, RF Ambinder1,2,3, G Srivastava5, M Shamay1,3, ATC Chan4, NC Popescu6 and W-S Hsieh1,2,3 1Division of Biomedical Sciences, Johns Hopkins Singapore, Singapore; 2Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore; 3Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; 4Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Sir YK Pao Center for Cancer, Department of Clinical Oncology, Hong Kong Cancer Institute and Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; 5Department of Pathology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong and 6Laboratory of Experimental Carcinogenesis, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA The critical 8p22 tumor suppressor deleted in liver cancer modulating the complex activities of DLC1 during 1(DLC1) is frequently inactivated by aberrant CpG carcinogenesis. methylation and/or genetic deletion and implicated in Oncogene (2011) 30, 1923–1935; doi:10.1038/onc.2010.576; tumorigeneses of multiple tumor types. Here, we report published online 10 January 2011 the identification and characterization of its new isoform, DLC1 isoform 4 (DLC1-i4). This novel isoform encodes Keywords: DLC1; RhoGAP; methylation; tumor sup- an 1125-aa (amino acid) protein with distinct N-terminus pressor gene; carcinoma; p53 as compared with other known DLC1 isoforms. Similar to other isoforms, DLC1-i4 is expressed ubiquitously in normal tissues and immortalized normal epithelial cells, suggesting a role as a major DLC1 transcript. However, Introduction differential expression of the four DLC1 isoforms is found in tumor cell lines: Isoform 1 (longest) and 3 (short thus Carcinogenesis involves multiple genetic/epigenetic probably nonfunctional) share a promoter and are silenced events including the activation of oncogenes and in almost all cancer and immortalized cell lines, whereas inactivation of tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) (Fearon isoform 2 and 4 utilize different promoters and are and Vogelstein, 1990; Knudson, 2001). In addition to frequently downregulated. DLC1-i4 is significantly down- genetic mutations, a growing body of evidence has regulated in multiple carcinoma cell lines, including 2/4 shown that TSG inactivation occurs frequently through nasopharyngeal, 8/16 (50%) esophageal, 4/16 (25%) promoter CpG methylation (Jones and Laird, 1999; gastric, 6/9 (67%) breast, 3/4 colorectal, 4/4 cervical and Herman and Baylin, 2003), resulting in TSG silencing 2/8(25%) lung carcinoma cell lines. The functional and subsequent loss of function, thereby contributing DLC1-i4 promoter is within a CpG island and is activated to neoplastic transformation (Jones and Baylin, 2007). by wild-type p53. CpG methylation of the DLC1-i4 Aberrant CpG methylation of TSG-associated CpG promoter is associated with its silencing in tumor cells and islands is a characteristic hallmark of tumor genomic was detected in 38–100% of multiple primary tumors. DNA, and examples of methylation silenced TSGs Treatment with 5-aza-20-deoxycytidine or genetic double include p16, MLH1, VHL, RAR-beta, SOCS1, knockout of DNMT1 and DNMT3B led to demethylation PCDH10, RASAL and so on (Herman and Baylin, of the promoter and reactivation of its expression, 2003; Jones and Baylin, 2007). indicating a predominantly epigenetic mechanism of Deleted in liver cancer 1 (DLC1) gene (also known as silencing. Ectopic expression of DLC1-i4 in silenced ARHGAP7, STARD12, HP and p122-RhoGAP) was tumor cells strongly inhibited their growth and colony isolated by representational difference analysis (Yuan formation. Thus, we identified a new isoform of DLC1 et al., 1998) from a sample of human hepatocellular with tumor suppressive function. The differential expres- carcinoma (HCC), and proposed as a candidate TSG sion of various DLC1 isoforms suggests interplay in because of its frequent deletion in hepatocellular carci- noma tumors and cell lines. Located at 8p22, a site of recurrent deletion in breast, lung and prostate cancers (Yuan et al., 1998), DLC1 encodes a protein of 1091-aa Correspondence: Professor Q Tao, Rm 315, Cancer Center, Depart- ment of Clinical Oncology, PWH, Chinese University of Hong Kong, (amino acid) with extensive homology (86%) to the rat Shatin, Hong Kong. p122-RhoGAP, a GTPase-activating protein (GAP) E-mail: [email protected] or Dr W-S Hsieh, Cancer Science specific for RhoA and Cdc42 that are involved in the Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, Centre for regulation of cellular cytoskeleton organization and Life Sciences Level 2, 28 Medical Drive, 117456 Singapore. E-mail: [email protected] other functions (Homma and Emori, 1995; Yuan et al., Received 1 June 2010; revised 15 November 2010; accepted 15 November 1998; Sekimata et al., 1999; Bernards, 2003; Wong et al., 2010; published online 10 January 2011 2003; Durkin et al., 2007b). Subsequent studies identified Novel isoform of DLC1 silenced in tumors JSW Low et al 1924 DLC1 as an epigenetically silenced gene with tumor non-small-cell lung carcinoma cells . In addition, DLC1 suppressive and metastatic inhibitory functions in knockdown in the background of c-myc overexpression breast, liver, colon, lung, stomach and brain cancers promotes the formation of liver tumors in a murine (Kim et al., 2003; Yuan et al., 2003, 2004; Zhou et al., model (Xue et al., 2008). Taken together, these data 2004; Pang et al., 2005). Recently, using suppression suggest that DLC1 function both as a cytoplasmic and substractive hybridization, our group identified DLC1 nuclear tumor suppressor, and highlight the importance as an epigenetically silenced gene in nasopharyngeal of DLC1 in cancer development. (NPC), esophageal and cervical carcinomas (Seng et al., During our study of DLC1, we discovered a new 2007), thus, further supporting the view that DLC1 is a isoform through 50-rapid amplification of complemen- bona fide TSG. tary DNA (cDNA) ends (50-RACE). Here, we report the DLC1 is a member of the human RhoGAP family. characterization of this novel isoform (designated RhoGAP proteins share a conserved 150–200-aa GAP DLC1-isoform 4 (DLC1-i4)), its mRNA expression domain that contains the catalytic activity to convert the and epigenetic alterations in multiple carcinomas. We active GTP-bound Rho proteins to the inactive GDP- also describe the response of the DLC1-i4 promoter to bound state (Bernards, 2003; Moon and Zheng, 2003; p53 and the expression of the two other DLC1 isoforms Tcherkezian and Lamarche-Vane, 2007; Durkin et al., (-i1 and -i3) in human cells. Lastly, we demonstrate that 2007b). Loss of RhoGAP activity leads to aberrant DLC1-i4 and -i1 suppress tumor cell colony formation. activation of GTP-bound Rho proteins, which are involved in the regulation of the cell cycle, adhesion, morphogenesis, polarity and migration; and dysregula- tion of GTP-bound Rho proteins have been implicated Results in tumorigenesis (Martin, 2003; Moon and Zheng, 2003). Members of the DLC family include DLC1, 50-RNA ligase-mediated rapid amplification of cDNA DLC2, and DLC3, and their domain structures share an ends (50 RLM-RACE) identifies a novel isoform of DLC1 N-terminal sterile a motif domain, a serine-rich domain, (DLC1-i4) and expression profiles of all four isoforms a RhoGAP domain and a C-terminal steroidogenic in normal tissues acute regulatory protein-related lipid transfer domain To identify novel isoform(s) of DLC1,50-RLM-RACE (Yuan et al., 1998; Ponting and Aravind, 1999; Ching was performed on NP69 and liver total RNA using et al., 2003; Durkin et al., 2007a). Recently, Yuan et al. antisense primers targeting the DLC1 common exons 9 (2007) showed that DLC1 harbors a functional bipartite and 12 (Table 1 and Figure 1a). Two PCR bands of nuclear localization signal which works together with 205 bp and 199 bp were obtained and sequenced. the RhoGAP and serine-rich domain to mediate DLC1 Sequence analysis identified two transcriptional start protein nuclear transfer and subsequent apoptosis in sites only 6 bp apart and overlapped with a previously Table 1 Sequences of primers used in this study PCR Primer name Targeted exona Sequence (50–30) Size Annealing temp (1C) Cycles 50-RLM RACE TJR 12 AGTCCATTTGCCACTGATGG — 55 35 E10R2 9 TAAAGCTGTGCATACTGGGG E10R 9 CCGTAGCCAATCACAAGCTT RT–PCR DLC1-i4 V4F 6 AACACTAGAGACAGACGGCT 294 bp 55 35 TJR 12 AGTCCATTTGCCACTGATGG DLC1-i1 NewF 4 ACTCCAGTAGCCAATTCTGG 342 bp 55 35 TJR 12 AGTCCATTTGCCACTGATGG DLC1-i2 V2F 8 GGACACCATGATCCTAACAC 289 bp 55 35 TJR 12 AGTCCATTTGCCACTGATGG DLC1-i3 NewF 4 ACTCCAGTAGCCAATTCTGG 226 bp 55 35 V3R 7 CGGCCTAGGTGATGTTTTCT GAPDH GAPDH55 — ATCTCTGCCCCCCTGCTGA 304 bp 60 25 GAPDH33 — GATGACCTTGCCCACAGCCT MSP for the DLC1-i4 promoter DLC1-i4 M1 — TAGGCGATAGTTTGCGGTC 143 bp 58 40 M2 — AAAAAAACTCGCAAAAAACGCG U1 — GGTAGGTGATAGTTTGTGGTT 147 bp 58 40 U2 — AAAAAAAAACTCACAAAAAACACA BGS for the DLC1-i4 promoter DLC1-i4 BGS1 — GAAAGTTAAAGATAAGGTTATTTG 564 bp 58 40 BGS2 — CCAAATAACATCCAAAACTCTAA Abbreviations: DLC, deleted in liver cancer; MSP, methylation-specific PCR; RT–PCR, reverse transcription PCR. aExon number according to Figure 1a. Oncogene Novel isoform of DLC1 silenced in tumors JSW Low et al 1925 Figure 1 mRNA expression, exon and protein structure of the various DLC1 isoforms and the CpG-rich DLC1-i4 promoter. (a) Exon structure of the human DLC1 gene (not drawn to scale). The DLC1 gene contains internal promoters and expresses multiple isoforms. Boxes represent exons and are numbered to correspond to coding exons of the various DLC1 isoforms with the 50-most exon denoted as exon 1 (exon 1 of isoforms 1 and 3). Closed boxes indicate exons common in all DLC1 isoforms except isoform 3.