scholarly journals BRM: the core ATPase subunit of SWI/SNF chromatin-remodelling complex—a tumour suppressor or tumour-promoting factor?

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iga Jancewicz ◽  
Janusz A. Siedlecki ◽  
Tomasz J. Sarnowski ◽  
Elzbieta Sarnowska

Abstract BRM (BRAHMA) is a core, SWI2/SNF2-type ATPase subunit of SWI/SNF chromatin-remodelling complex (CRC) involved in various important regulatory processes including development. Mutations in SMARCA2, a BRM-encoding gene as well as overexpression or epigenetic silencing were found in various human diseases including cancer. Missense mutations in SMARCA2 gene were recently connected with occurrence of Nicolaides–Baraitser genetics syndrome. By contrast, SMARCA2 duplication rather than mutations is characteristic for Coffin–Siris syndrome. It is believed that BRM usually acts as a tumour suppressor or a tumour susceptibility gene. However, other studies provided evidence that BRM function may differ depending on the cancer type and the disease stage, where BRM may play a role in the disease progression. The existence of alternative splicing forms of SMARCA2 gene, leading to appearance of truncated functional, loss of function or gain-of-function forms of BRM protein suggest a far more complicated mode of BRM-containing SWI/SNF CRCs actions. Therefore, the summary of recent knowledge regarding BRM alteration in various types of cancer and highlighting of differences and commonalities between BRM and BRG1, another SWI2/SNF2 type ATPase, will lead to better understanding of SWI/SNF CRCs function in cancer development/progression. BRM has been recently proposed as an attractive target for various anticancer therapies including the use of small molecule inhibitors, synthetic lethality induction or proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC). However, such attempts have some limitations and may lead to severe side effects given the homology of BRM ATPase domain to other ATPases, as well as due to the tissue-specific appearance of BRM- and BRG1-containing SWI/SNF CRC classes. Thus, a better insight into BRM-containing SWI/SNF CRCs function in human tissues and cancers is clearly required to provide a solid basis for establishment of new safe anticancer therapies.

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. T39-T55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiranjit K Dhillon ◽  
Ilirjana Bajrami ◽  
Toshiyasu Taniguchi ◽  
Christopher J Lord

When theBRCA1andBRCA2tumour suppressor genes were identified in the early 1990s, the immediate implications of mapping, cloning and delineating the sequence of these genes were that individuals in families with aBRCAgene mutation could be tested for the presence of a mutation and their risk of developing cancer could be predicted. Over time though, the discovery ofBRCA1andBRCA2has had a much greater influence than many might have imagined. In this review, we discuss how the discovery ofBRCA1andBRCA2has not only provided an understanding of the molecular processes that drive tumourigenesis but also reignited an interest in therapeutically exploiting loss-of-function alterations in tumour suppressor genes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Vellmer ◽  
Laura Hartleb ◽  
Albert Fradera Sola ◽  
Susanne Kramer ◽  
Elisabeth Meyer-Natus ◽  
...  

A cascade of histone acetylation events with subsequent incorporation of a histone H2A variant plays an essential part in transcription regulation in various model organisms. A key player in this cascade is the chromatin remodelling complex SWR1, which replaces the canonical histone H2A with its variant H2A.Z. Transcriptional regulation of polycistronic transcription units in the unicellular parasite Trypanosoma brucei has been shown to be highly dependent on acetylation of H2A.Z, which is mediated by the histone-acetyltransferase HAT2. The chromatin remodelling complex which mediates H2A.Z incorporation is not known and an SWR1 orthologue in trypanosomes has not yet been reported. In this study, we identified and characterised an SWR1-like remodeller complex in T. brucei that is responsible for Pol II-dependent transcriptional regulation. Bioinformatic analysis of potential SNF2 DEAD/Box helicases, the key component of SWR1 complexes, identified a 1211 amino acids-long protein that exhibits key structural characteristics of the SWR1 subfamily. Systematic protein-protein interaction analysis revealed the existence of a novel complex exhibiting key features of an SWR1-like chromatin remodeller. RNAi-mediated depletion of the ATPase subunit of this complex resulted in a significant reduction of H2A.Z incorporation at transcription start sites and a subsequent decrease of steady-state mRNA levels. Furthermore, depletion of SWR1 and RNA-polymerase II (Pol II) caused massive chromatin condensation. The potential function of several proteins associated with the SWR1-like complex and with HAT2, the key factor of H2A.Z incorporation, is discussed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neha Jain ◽  
Davide Tamborrini ◽  
Brian Evans ◽  
Shereen Chaudhry ◽  
Bryan J. Wilkins ◽  
...  

AbstractChromatin remodelling complexes are multi-subunit nucleosome translocases that reorganize chromatin in the context of DNA replication, repair and transcription. A key question is how these complexes find their target sites on chromatin. Here, we use genetically encoded photo-crosslinker amino acids to map the footprint of Sth1, the catalytic subunit of the RSC (remodels the structure of chromatin) complex, on the nucleosome in living yeast. We find that the interaction of the Sth1 bromodomain with the H3 tail depends on K14 acetylation by Gcn5. This modification does not recruit RSC to chromatin but mediates its interaction with neighbouring nucleosomes. We observe a preference of RSC for H2B SUMOylated nucleosomes in vivo and show that this modification moderately enhances RSC binding to nucleosomes in vitro. Furthermore, RSC is not ejected from chromatin in mitosis, but its mode of nucleosome binding differs between interphase and mitosis. In sum, our in vivo analyses show that RSC recruitment to specific chromatin targets involves multiple histone modifications most likely in combination with other components such as histone variants and transcription factors.Key PointsIn vivo photo-crosslinking reveals the footprint of the ATPase subunit of RSC on the nucleosome.RSC binds to H3 K14ac nucleosomes via the C-terminal bromodomain of its ATPase-subunit Sth1.RSC preferentially localizes to H2B-SUMOylated nucleosomes.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tae Yoon Park ◽  
Mark D.M. Leiserson ◽  
Gunnar W. Klau ◽  
Benjamin J. Raphael

AbstractRecent genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 loss-of-function screens have identified genetic dependencies across many cancer cell lines. Associations between these dependencies and genomic alterations in the same cell lines reveal phenomena such as oncogene addiction and synthetic lethality. However, comprehensive characterization of such associations is complicated by complex interactions between genes across genetically heterogeneous cancer types. We introduce SuperDendrix, an algorithm to identify differential dependencies across cell lines and to find associations between differential dependencies and combinations of genetic alterations and cell-type-specific markers. Application of SuperDendrix to CRISPR-Cas9 loss-of-function screens from 554 cancer cell lines reveals a landscape of associations between differential dependencies and genomic alterations across multiple cancer pathways in different combinations of cancer types. We find that these associations respect the position and type of interactions within pathways with increased dependencies on downstream activators of pathways, such as NFE2L2 and decreased dependencies on upstream activators of pathways, such as CDK6. SuperDendrix also reveals dozens of dependencies on lineage-specific transcription factors, identifies cancer-type-specific correlations between dependencies, and enables annotation of individual mutated residues.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. viii672
Author(s):  
I. Jancewicz ◽  
N. Rusetska ◽  
A. Armatowska ◽  
M. Stachowiak ◽  
K. Pogoda ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Israel Lehvy ◽  
Guy Horev ◽  
Yarden Golan ◽  
Fabian Glaser ◽  
Yael Shammai ◽  
...  

Abstract Zinc is vital for the structure and function of ~3000 human proteins and hence plays key physiological roles. Consequently, impaired zinc homeostasis is associated with various human diseases including cancer. Intracellular zinc levels are tightly regulated by two families of zinc transporters: ZIPs and ZnTs; ZIPs import zinc into the cytosol from the extracellular milieu, or from the lumen of organelles into the cytoplasm. In contrast, the vast majority of ZnTs compartmentalize zinc within organelles, whereas the ubiquitously expressed ZnT1 is the sole zinc exporter. Herein, we explored the hypothesis that qualitative and quantitative alterations in ZnT1 activity impair cellular zinc homeostasis in cancer. Towards this end, we first used bioinformatics to analyze inactivating mutations in ZIPs and ZNTs, catalogued in the COSMIC and gnomAD databases, representing tumor specimens and healthy population controls, respectively. ZnT1, ZnT10, ZIP8, and ZIP10 showed extremely high rates of loss of function mutations in cancer as compared to healthy controls. Analysis of the putative functional impact of missense mutations in ZnT1-ZnT10 and ZIP1-ZIP14, using homologous protein alignment and structural predictions, revealed that ZnT1 displays a markedly increased frequency of predicted functionally deleterious mutations in malignant tumors, as compared to a healthy population. Furthermore, examination of ZnT1 expression in 30 cancer types in the TCGA database revealed five tumor types with significant ZnT1 overexpression, which predicted dismal prognosis for cancer patient survival. Novel functional zinc transport assays, which allowed for the indirect measurement of cytosolic zinc levels, established that wild type ZnT1 overexpression results in low intracellular zinc levels. In contrast, overexpression of predicted deleterious ZnT1 missense mutations did not reduce intracellular zinc levels, validating eight missense mutations as loss of function (LoF) mutations. Thus, alterations in ZnT1 expression and LoF mutations in ZnT1 provide a molecular mechanism for impaired zinc homeostasis in cancer formation and/or progression.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2704
Author(s):  
Sally Yepes ◽  
Nirav N. Shah ◽  
Jiwei Bai ◽  
Hela Koka ◽  
Chuzhong Li ◽  
...  

Background: Chordoma is a rare bone cancer with an unknown etiology. TBXT is the only chordoma susceptibility gene identified to date; germline single nucleotide variants and copy number variants in TBXT have been associated with chordoma susceptibility in familial and sporadic chordoma. However, the genetic susceptibility of chordoma remains largely unknown. In this study, we investigated rare germline genetic variants in genes involved in TBXT/chordoma-related signaling pathways and other biological processes in chordoma patients from North America and China. Methods: We identified variants that were very rare in general population and internal control datasets and showed evidence for pathogenicity in 265 genes in a whole exome sequencing (WES) dataset of 138 chordoma patients of European ancestry and in a whole genome sequencing (WGS) dataset of 80 Chinese patients with skull base chordoma. Results: Rare and likely pathogenic variants were identified in 32 of 138 European ancestry patients (23%), including genes that are part of notochord development, PI3K/AKT/mTOR, Sonic Hedgehog, SWI/SNF complex and mesoderm development pathways. Rare pathogenic variants in COL2A1, EXT1, PDK1, LRP2, TBXT and TSC2, among others, were also observed in Chinese patients. Conclusion: We identified several rare loss-of-function and predicted deleterious missense variants in germline DNA from patients with chordoma, which may influence chordoma predisposition and reflect a complex susceptibility, warranting further investigation in large studies.


Microbiology ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 149 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Ruiz ◽  
Victoria Escribano ◽  
Eulalia Morgado ◽  
María Molina ◽  
María J. Mazón

1996 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 4387-4395 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Mack ◽  
K Nishimura ◽  
B K Dennehey ◽  
T Arbogast ◽  
J Parkinson ◽  
...  

The Rho-type GTPase Cdc42p is required for cell polarization and bud emergence in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To identify genes whose functions are linked to CDC42, we screened for (i) multicopy suppressors of a Ts- cdc42 mutant, (ii) mutants that require multiple copies of CDC42 for survival, and (iii) mutations that display synthetic lethality with a partial-loss-of-function allele of CDC24, which encodes a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for Cdc42p. In all three screens, we identified a new gene, BEM4. Cells from which BEM4 was deleted were inviable at 37 degrees C. These cells became unbudded, large, and round, consistent with a model in which Bem4p acts together with Cdc42p in polarity establishment and bud emergence. In some strains, the ability of CDC42 to serve as a multicopy suppressor of the Ts- growth defect of deltabem4 cells required co-overexpression of Rho1p, which is an essential Rho-type GTPase necessary for cell wall integrity. This finding suggests that Bem4p also affects Rho1p function. Bem4p displayed two-hybrid interactions with Cdc42p, Rho1p, and two of the three other known yeast Rho-type GTPases, suggesting that Bem4p can interact with multiple Rho-type GTPases. Models for the role of Bem4p include that it serves as a chaperone or modulates the interaction of these GTPases with one or more of their targets or regulators.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (10) ◽  
pp. T195-T208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rami Alrezk ◽  
Fady Hannah-Shmouni ◽  
Constantine A Stratakis

Multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) refers to a group of autosomal dominant disorders with generally high penetrance that lead to the development of a wide spectrum of endocrine and non-endocrine manifestations. The most frequent among these conditions is MEN type 1 (MEN1), which is caused by germline heterozygous loss-of-function mutations in the tumor suppressor geneMEN1. MEN1 is characterized by primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) and functional or nonfunctional pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and pituitary adenomas. Approximately 10% of patients with familial or sporadic MEN1-like phenotype do not haveMEN1mutations or deletions. A novel MEN syndrome was discovered, initially in rats (MENX), and later in humans (MEN4), which is caused by germline mutations in the putative tumor suppressorCDKN1B. The most common phenotype of the 19 established cases of MEN4 that have been described to date is PHPT followed by pituitary adenomas. Recently, somatic or germline mutations inCDKN1Bwere also identified in patients with sporadic PHPT, small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors, lymphoma and breast cancer, demonstrating a novel role forCDKN1Bas a tumor susceptibility gene for other neoplasms. In this review, we report on the genetic characterization and clinical features of MEN4.


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