Wend et al. page 1 Wnt/ȕ-catenin signaling induces MLL to create epigenetic changes in salivary gland tumors Peter Wend1,7, Liang Fang1, Qionghua Zhu1, Jörg H. Schipper2, Christoph Loddenkemper3, Frauke Kosel1, Volker Brinkmann4, Klaus Eckert1, Simone Hindersin2, Jane D. Holland1, Stephan Lehr5, Michael Kahn6, Ulrike Ziebold1,*, Walter Birchmeier1,* 1Max-Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine, Robert-Rössle-Str. 10, 13125 Berlin, Germany 2Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Moorenstr. 5, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany 3Institute of Pathology, Charité-UKBF, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12200 Berlin, Germany 4Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Schumannstr. 20, 10117 Berlin, Germany 5Baxter Innovations GmbH, Wagramer Str. 17-19, 1220 Vienna, Austria 6Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA 7Present address: David Geffen School of Medicine and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California at Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA *These senior authors contributed equally to this work. Contact:
[email protected], phone: +49-30-9406-3800, fax: +49-30-9406-2656 Running title: ȕ-catenin and MLL drive salivary gland tumors Characters (including spaces): 52,604 Wend et al. page 2 Abstract We show that activation of Wnt/ȕ-catenin and attenuation of Bmp signals, by combined gain- and loss-of-function mutations of ȕ-catenin and Bmpr1a, respectively, results in rapidly growing, aggressive squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) in the salivary glands of mice. Tumors contain transplantable and hyper-proliferative tumor propagating cells, which can be enriched by FACS. Single mutations stimulate stem cells, but tumors are not formed. We show that ȕ-catenin, CBP and Mll promote self- renewal and H3K4 tri-methylation in tumor propagating cells.