JUNB governs a feed-forward network of TGFβ signaling that aggravates breast cancer invasion

Nucleic Acids Res. 2018 Feb 16;46(3):1180-1195. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkx1190.

Abstract

It is well established that transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) switches its function from being a tumor suppressor to a tumor promoter during the course of tumorigenesis, which involves both cell-intrinsic and environment-mediated mechanisms. We are interested in breast cancer cells, in which SMAD mutations are rare and interactions between SMAD and other transcription factors define pro-oncogenic events. Here, we have performed chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-sequencing analyses which indicate that the genome-wide landscape of SMAD2/3 binding is altered after prolonged TGFβ stimulation. De novo motif analyses of the SMAD2/3 binding regions predict enrichment of binding motifs for activator protein (AP)1 in addition to SMAD motifs. TGFβ-induced expression of the AP1 component JUNB was required for expression of many late invasion-mediating genes, creating a feed-forward regulatory network. Moreover, we found that several components in the WNT pathway were enriched among the late TGFβ-target genes, including the invasion-inducing WNT7 proteins. Consistently, overexpression of WNT7A or WNT7B enhanced and potentiated TGFβ-induced breast cancer cell invasion, while inhibition of the WNT pathway reduced this process. Our study thereby helps to explain how accumulation of pro-oncogenic stimuli switches and stabilizes TGFβ-induced cellular phenotypes of epithelial cells.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Base Sequence
  • Binding Sites
  • Breast Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Breast Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • Cell Line
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian
  • Epithelial Cells / cytology
  • Epithelial Cells / drug effects
  • Epithelial Cells / metabolism
  • Feedback, Physiological*
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic*
  • Gene Regulatory Networks*
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
  • Humans
  • Neoplasm Invasiveness
  • Protein Binding
  • Smad2 Protein / genetics
  • Smad2 Protein / metabolism
  • Smad3 Protein / genetics
  • Smad3 Protein / metabolism
  • Transcription Factors / genetics*
  • Transcription Factors / metabolism
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta1 / metabolism
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta1 / pharmacology*
  • Wnt Proteins / genetics
  • Wnt Proteins / metabolism
  • Wnt Signaling Pathway
  • Zebrafish

Substances

  • JunB protein, human
  • SMAD2 protein, human
  • SMAD3 protein, human
  • Smad2 Protein
  • Smad3 Protein
  • TGFB1 protein, human
  • Transcription Factors
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta1
  • WNT7A protein, human
  • WNT7B protein, human
  • Wnt Proteins