Project description:The exocyst is an evolutionarily conserved protein complex that regulates vesicular trafficking and scaffolds signal transduction. Key upstream components of the exocyst include monomeric RAL GTPases, which help mount cell-autonomous responses to trophic and immunogenic signals. Here, we present a quantitative proteomics-based characterization of dynamic and signal-dependent exocyst protein interactomes. Under viral infection, an Exo84 exocyst subcomplex assembles the immune kinase Protein Kinase R (PKR) together with the Hippo kinase Macrophage Stimulating 1 (MST1). PKR phosphorylates MST1 to activate Hippo signaling and inactivate Yes Associated Protein 1 (YAP1). By contrast, a Sec5 exocyst subcomplex recruits another immune kinase, TANK binding kinase 1 (TBK1), which interacted with and activated mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). RALB was necessary and sufficient for induction of Hippo and mTOR signaling through parallel exocyst subcomplex engagement, supporting the cellular response to virus infection and oncogenic signaling. This study highlights RALB-exocyst signaling subcomplexes as mechanisms for the integrated engagement of Hippo and mTOR signaling in cells challenged by viral pathogens or oncogenic signaling.
Project description:We report the transcriptomic landscape of HeLa cells in reponse to immune stimulus. We use this data to identify the genes that are commonly upregulated in response to the immunogenic stimuli. The data represent RNAseq reads/abundance for the genes listed in the processed data.
Project description:The Hippo pathway is a commonly altered signaling pathway involved in cancer initiation and progression; however, exactly how this pathway becomes dysregulated to promote human cancer development has not been fully understood. In this study, we systematically analyzed the Hippo somatic mutations derived from human cancer genome and functionally annotated their roles in targeting the Hippo pathway. We identified a total of 85 driver missense mutations for the major Hippo pathway genes and elucidated the mechanisms by which these mutations altered their functions in the Hippo pathway. Through these analyses, we revealed zinc-finger domain (ZNF) as an integral structure required for MOB1 function, whose driver mutations promoted head and neck cancer development. Moreover, we discovered that the schwannoma/meningioma-derived NF2 driver mutations gained an oncogenic role by activating the VANGL-JNK pathway. Taken together, our study offers a rich somatic mutation resource for further investigating the Hippo pathway in human cancer, providing a molecular basis for the development of Hippo-related personalized cancer therapy.
Project description:To investigate the functional and mechanistic roles of mTOR in zebrafish larvae fin regeneration, we firstly examined the spatiotemporal expression of mTOR in larvae fin and established a mTOR knockout (mTOR-KO) transgenic fish line using CRISPER / Cas9 gene editing technology. Moreover, mTOR was essential for the activation of macrophages, which is a key factor in maintaining the regenerative repair process. We also demonstrated that mTOR knockdown attenuated the proliferative capacity of bud embryo cell during the regenerative phase, while cell apoptosis was not affected. RNA-sequence analysis showed changes in mitochondrial function and dnm1l was identified as the main regulatory factor during the fin regeneration stage. We further suggested that mTOR may promote mitochondrial fission to support bud embryo cell regeneration via CaM-mTOR-dnm1l axis.
Project description:Most cancer cells are exposed to extracellular environments, such as extracellular matrix, which commonly becomes stiffer along with transformation. It is conceivable that tumorous extracellular environments would be changing to affect tumor cell behavior. It has been reported that Hippo pathway responds to the extracellular environments and induces the nuclear localization of transcription activator, yes-associated protein (YAP), resulting in stimulating cell proliferation. Its pathway also regulates gene expression, but the precise molecule to meditate cell proliferating effect of Hippo pathway in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is not well understood. Here, we examined the effects of YAP-mediated Hippo pathway in OSCC tumorigenesis. Loss-of-function experiments using siRNA or an inhibitor, and immunohistochemical analyses of tissue specimens obtained from OSCC specimens demonstrated that YAP-mediated Hippo pathway was involved in OSCC cell proliferation. We identified Piezo-type mechanosensitive ion channel component 1 (PIEZO1), a Ca2+ channel, as a downstream molecule of Hippo pathway and showed that elevated PIEZO1 expression was required for PIEZO1 agonist-dependent Ca2+ entry and cell proliferation in OSCC cells. Furthermore, the experiments using three-dimensional culture and suspension culture revealed that PIEZO1, of which expression was regulated by YAP-mediated Hippo pathway, was involved in OSCC cellular growth. Immunohistochemically, YAP overexpression with nucleus and/or cytoplasm was detected with both PIEZO1 and Ki-67 expression at high frequencies in tumor lesion, but not in non-tumor region, of OSCC specimens. These results suggest that the YAP-mediated Hippo/PIEZO1 axis, which might be activated by the tumorous extracellular environments, promotes OSCC tumor cell growth.
Project description:The Hippo pathway is an emerging signaling cascade involved in the regulation of organ size control. It consists of evolutionally conserved protein kinases that are sequentially phosphorylated and activated. The active Hippo pathway subsequently phosphorylates a transcription coactivator, YAP, which precludes its nuclear localization and transcriptional activation. Identification of transcriptional targets of YAP in diverse cellular contexts is therefore critical to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms in which the Hippo pathway restricts tissue growth. We used microarrays to profile the gene expression patterns upon acute siRNA knockdown of Hippo pathway components in multiple mammalian cell lines and identified a set of genes representing immediate transcriptional targets of the Hippo/Yap signaling pathway. Three mammalian cell lines (HEK293T, HepG2, HaCaT) were transfected with scramble siRNA controls or siRNAs against NF2 and LATS2, two core components of the Hippo pathway, simultaneously. Total RNAs were harvested four days after transfection to reveal the gene expression pattern unsing microarry. YAP and TAZ siRNAs were also transfected along with NF2 and LATS2 siRNAs to identify YAP/TAZ-dependent transcriptional targets upon loss of NF2/LATS2.