The stress kinase MKK7 couples oncogenic stress to p53 stability and tumor suppression

Most preneoplastic lesions are quiescent and do not progress to form overt tumors. It has been proposed that oncogenic stress activates the DNA damage response and the key tumor suppressor p53, which prohibits tumor growth. However, the molecular pathways by which cells sense a premalignant state in vivo are largely unknown. Here we report that tissue-specific inactivation of the stress signaling kinase MKK7 in KRas(G12D)-driven lung carcinomas and NeuT-driven mammary tumors markedly accelerates tumor onset and reduces overall survival. Mechanistically, MKK7 acts through the kinases JNK1 and JNK2, and this signaling pathway directly couples oncogenic and genotoxic stress to the stability of p53, which is required for cell cycle arrest and suppression of epithelial cancers. These results show that MKK7 functions as a major tumor suppressor in lung and mammary cancer in mouse and identify MKK7 as a vital molecular sensor to set a cellular anti-cancer barrier.     

Heterozygous missense mutations in BSCL2 are associated with distal hereditary motor neuropathy and Silver syndrome

Distal hereditary motor neuropathy (dHMN) or distal spinal muscular atrophy (OMIM #182960) is a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by an almost exclusive degeneration of motor nerve fibers, predominantly in the distal part of the limbs. Silver syndrome (OMIM #270685) is a rare form of hereditary spastic paraparesis mapped to chromosome 11q12-q14 (SPG17) in which spasticity of the legs is accompanied by amyotrophy of the hands and occasionally also the lower limbs. Silver syndrome and most forms of dHMN are autosomal dominantly inherited with incomplete penetrance and a broad variability in clinical expression. A genome-wide scan in an Austrian family with dHMN-V (ref. 4) showed linkage to the locus SPG17, which was confirmed in 16 additional families with a phenotype characteristic of dHMN or Silver syndrome. After refining the critical region to 1 Mb, we sequenced the gene Berardinelli-Seip congenital lipodystrophy (BSCL2) and identified two heterozygous missense mutations resulting in the amino acid substitutions N88S and S90L. Null mutations in BSCL2, which encodes the protein seipin, were previously shown to be associated with autosomal recessive Berardinelli-Seip congenital lipodystrophy (OMIM #269700). We show that seipin is an integral membrane protein of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The amino acid substitutions N88S and S90L affect glycosylation of seipin and result in aggregate formation leading to neurodegeneration.     

Mechanisms and convergence of compensatory evolution in mammalian mitochondrial tRNAs

The function of protein and RNA molecules depends on complex epistatic interactions between sites. Therefore, the deleterious effect of a mutation can be suppressed by a compensatory second-site substitution. In relating a list of 86 pathogenic mutations in human tRNAs encoded by mitochondrial genes to the sequences of their mammalian orthologs, we noted that 52 pathogenic mutations were present in normal tRNAs of one or several nonhuman mammals. We found at least five mechanisms of compensation for 32 pathogenic mutations that destroyed a Watson-Crick pair in one of the four tRNA stems: restoration of the affected Watson-Crick interaction (25 cases), strengthening of another pair (4 cases), creation of a new pair (8 cases), changes of multiple interactions in the affected stem (11 cases) and changes involving the interaction between the loop and stem structures (3 cases). A pathogenic mutation and its compensating substitution are fixed in a lineage in rapid succession, and often a compensatory interaction evolves convergently in different clades. At least 10%, and perhaps as many as 50%, of all nucleotide substitutions in evolving mammalian tRNAs participate in such interactions, indicating that the evolution of tRNAs proceeds along highly epistatic fitness ridges.     

Low-penetrance susceptibility to breast cancer due to CHEK2(*)1100delC in noncarriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations

Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 confer a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer, but account for only a small fraction of breast cancer susceptibility. To find additional genes conferring susceptibility to breast cancer, we analyzed CHEK2 (also known as CHK2), which encodes a cell-cycle checkpoint kinase that is implicated in DNA repair processes involving BRCA1 and p53 (refs 3,4,5). We show that CHEK2(*)1100delC, a truncating variant that abrogates the kinase activity, has a frequency of 1.1% in healthy individuals. However, this variant is present in 5.1% of individuals with breast cancer from 718 families that do not carry mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 (P = 0.00000003), including 13.5% of individuals from families with male breast cancer (P = 0.00015). We estimate that the CHEK2(*)1100delC variant results in an approximately twofold increase of breast cancer risk in women and a tenfold increase of risk in men. By contrast, the variant confers no increased cancer risk in carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. This suggests that the biological mechanisms underlying the elevated risk of breast cancer in CHEK2 mutation carriers are already subverted in carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, which is consistent with participation of the encoded proteins in the same pathway.     

Coordination of the random asynchronous replication of autosomal loci

Random monoallelic expression and asynchronous replication define an unusual class of autosomal mammalian genes. We show that every cell has randomly chosen either the maternal or paternal copy of each given autosome pair, such that alleles of these genes scattered across the chosen chromosome replicate earlier than the alleles on the homologous chromosome. Thus, chromosome-pair non-equivalence, rather than being limited to X-chromosome inactivation, is a fundamental property of mouse chromosomes.     

Polycystins 1 and 2 mediate mechanosensation in the primary cilium of kidney cells

Several proteins implicated in the pathogenesis of polycystic kidney disease (PKD) localize to cilia. Furthermore, cilia are malformed in mice with PKD with mutations in TgN737Rpw (encoding polaris). It is not known, however, whether ciliary dysfunction occurs or is relevant to cyst formation in PKD. Here, we show that polycystin-1 (PC1) and polycystin-2 (PC2), proteins respectively encoded by Pkd1 and Pkd2, mouse orthologs of genes mutated in human autosomal dominant PKD, co-distribute in the primary cilia of kidney epithelium. Cells isolated from transgenic mice that lack functional PC1 formed cilia but did not increase Ca(2+) influx in response to physiological fluid flow. Blocking antibodies directed against PC2 similarly abolished the flow response in wild-type cells as did inhibitors of the ryanodine receptor, whereas inhibitors of G-proteins, phospholipase C and InsP(3) receptors had no effect. These data suggest that PC1 and PC2 contribute to fluid-flow sensation by the primary cilium in renal epithelium and that they both function in the same mechanotransduction pathway. Loss or dysfunction of PC1 or PC2 may therefore lead to PKD owing to the inability of cells to sense mechanical cues that normally regulate tissue morphogenesis.     

Localized mutations in the gene encoding the cytoskeletal protein filamin A cause diverse malformations in humans

Remodeling of the cytoskeleton is central to the modulation of cell shape and migration. Filamin A, encoded by the gene FLNA, is a widely expressed protein that regulates re-organization of the actin cytoskeleton by interacting with integrins, transmembrane receptor complexes and second messengers. We identified localized mutations in FLNA that conserve the reading frame and lead to a broad range of congenital malformations, affecting craniofacial structures, skeleton, brain, viscera and urogenital tract, in four X-linked human disorders: otopalatodigital syndrome types 1 (OPD1; OMIM 311300) and 2 (OPD2; OMIM 304120), frontometaphyseal dysplasia (FMD; OMIM 305620) and Melnick-Needles syndrome (MNS; OMIM 309350). Several mutations are recurrent, and all are clustered into four regions of the gene: the actin-binding domain and rod domain repeats 3, 10 and 14/15. Our findings contrast with previous observations that loss of function of FLNA is embryonic lethal in males but manifests in females as a localized neuronal migration disorder, called periventricular nodular heterotopia (PVNH; refs. 3-6). The patterns of mutation, X-chromosome inactivation and phenotypic manifestations in the newly described mutations indicate that they have gain-of-function effects, implicating filamin A in signaling pathways that mediate organogenesis in multiple systems during embryonic development.     

Metaphysics and Natural Philosophy in Descartes and Newton

This paper compares Newton’s and Descartes’s conceptions of the complex relationship between physics and metaphysics.