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The transcriptional coactivator YAP1 (yes-associated protein 1) regulates cell proliferation, cell–cell interactions, organ size, and tumorigenesis. Post-transcriptional modifications and nuclear translocation of YAP1 are crucial for its nuclear activity. The objective of this study was to elucidate the mechanism by which the steroid hormone androgen regulates YAP1 nuclear entry and functions in several human prostate cancer cell lines. We demonstrate that androgen exposure suppresses the inactivating post-translational modification phospho–Ser-127 in YAP1, coinciding with increased YAP1 nuclear accumulation and activity. Pharmacological and genetic experiments revealed that intact androgen receptor signaling is necessary for androgen's inactivating effect on phospho–Ser-127 levels and increased YAP1 nuclear entry. We also found that androgen exposure antagonizes Ser/Thr kinase 4 (STK4/MST1) signaling, stimulates the activity of protein phosphatase 2A, and thereby attenuates the phospho–Ser-127 modification and promotes YAP1 nuclear localization. Results from quantitative RT-PCR and CRISPR/Cas9–aided gene knockout experiments indicated that androgen differentially regulates YAP1-dependent gene expression. Furthermore, an unbiased computational analysis of the prostate cancer data from The Cancer Genome Atlas revealed that YAP1 and androgen receptor transcript levels correlate with each other in prostate cancer tissues. These findings indicate that androgen regulates YAP1 nuclear localization and its transcriptional activity through the androgen receptor–STK4/MST1–protein phosphatase 2A axis, which may have important implications for human diseases such as prostate cancer.
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Discordant interactions between YAP1 and polycomb group protein SCML2 determine cell fate
The Polycomb group protein SCML2 and the transcriptional cofactor YAP1 regulate diverse cellular biology, including stem cell maintenance, developmental processes, and gene regulation in mammals and flies. However, their molecular and functional interactions are unknown. Here, we show that SCML2 interacts with YAP1, as revealed by immunological assays and mass spectroscopy. We have demonstrated that the steroid hormone androgen regulates the interaction of SCML2 with YAP1 in human tumor cell models. Our proximity ligation assay and GST pulldown showed that SCML2 and YAP1 physically interacted with each other. Silencing SCML2 by RNAi changed the growth behaviors of cells in response to androgen signaling. Mechanistically, this phenomenon is attributed to the interplay between distinct chromatin modifications and transcriptional programs, likely coordinated by the opposing SCML2 and YAP1 activity. These findings suggest that YAP1 and SCML2 cooperate to regulate cell growth, cell survival, and tumor biology downstream of steroid hormones.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1832022
- PAR ID:
- 10554969
- Publisher / Repository:
- ELSEVIER OPEN ACESS
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- iScience
- Volume:
- 26
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2589-0042
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 107964
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Cell biology Molecular biology Omics Proteomics.
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Sex comb on midleg-like-2 (SCML2), a conserved polycomb group protein, functions as a transcriptional repressor. SCML2 binds monomethylated lysine residues on histones and regulates homeotic gene expression during development in mammals and the fly. Using proteomic approaches, we have identified SCML2 as a binding partner of the YAP1 protein complexes isolated from nuclei of prostate cancer cell lines. Both SCML2 and YAP1 are known to regulate basic cellular biology, including stem cell maintenance and carcinogenesis. Our western blot analysis showed that, unlike androgen receptor (AR)-negative cancerous and non-cancerous prostate epithelium, AR-positive cell lines express the high levels of SCML2, suggesting a possible link between androgen hormonal signaling and SCML2. In addition, our immunofluorescence imaging revealed that androgen hormone signaling promoted the subcellular localization of SCML2 and YAP1 proteins compared with mock control. Enzalutamide, a potent pharmacological inhibitor of AR, significantly prevented the subcellular distribution ofYAP1 and SCML2. Consistent with this observation, our proximity ligation assay demonstrated that androgen also regulated the physical interaction between SCML2 and YAP1proteins that occurred primarily in cell nuclei. Enzalutamide also prevented protein-protein interaction between YAP and SCML2. Besides, our GST-pulldown assay revealed that SCML2 and proteins physically interact with each other in the test tube. Furthermore, our promoter-reporter assay showed that transfection of two different SCML2 siRNA enhanced the activation of the YAP-responsive promoter-reporter gene four-fold compared to mock siRNA control. These observations suggest that the interaction between SCML2 and YAP1 is biologically functional and crucial in human physiology and disease.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.107964
