Cited by 25Protein Kinase Regulation and GTPase SignalingDevelopmental Biology and Gene RegulationMelanoma and MAPK Pathways

Dynamic MAPK signaling activity underlies a transition from growth arrest to proliferation in Drosophila scribble mutant tumors

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Ji, Tiantian, Zhang, Lina, Deng, Mingxi, Huang, Shengshuo, Wang, Ying, Pham, Tri Thanh, Smith, Andrew Alan, Sridhar, Varun +3 more·2019·Disease Models & Mechanisms

Abstract

Human tumors exhibit plasticity and evolving capacity over time. It is difficult to study the mechanisms of how tumors change over time in human patients, in particular during the early stages when a few oncogenic cells are barely detectable. Here, we used a Drosophila tumor model caused by loss of scribble (scrib), a highly conserved apicobasal cell polarity gene, to investigate the spatial-temporal dynamics of early tumorigenesis events. The fly scrib mutant tumors have been successfully used to model many aspects of tumorigenesis processes. However, it is still unknown whether Drosophila scrib mutant tumors exhibit plasticity and evolvability along the temporal axis. We found that scrib mutant tumors displayed different growth rates and cell cycle profiles over time, indicative of a growth arrest-to-proliferation transition as the scrib mutant tumors progress. Longitudinal bulk and single-cell transcriptomic analysis of scrib mutant tumors revealed that the MAPK pathway, including JNK and ERK signaling activities, showed quantitative changes over time. We found that high JNK signaling activity caused G2/M cell cycle arrest in early scrib mutant tumors. In addition, JNK signaling activity displayed a radial polarity with the JNKhigh cells located at the periphery of scrib mutant tumors, providing an inherent mechanism that leads to an overall decrease in JNK signaling activity over time. We also found that ERK signaling activity, in contrast to JNK activity, increased over time and promoted growth in late-stage scrib mutant tumors. Furthermore, high JNK signaling activity repressed ERK signaling activity in early scrib mutant tumors. Together, these data demonstrate that dynamic MAPK signaling activity, fueled by intratumor heterogeneity derived from tissue topological differences, drives a growth arrest-to-proliferation transition in scrib mutant tumors. This article has an associated First Person interview with the joint first authors of the paper.

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  • Previously ectopic upregulation of a network of transcription factors (Upd, JAK-STAT, AP-1, Myc, Ftz, Ets, Irbp18, Xrp1, Slow border, and Vrille) promotes growth and invasiveness of RasV12,scrib- tumours.

    “Previously ectopic upregulation of a network of transcription factors e.g., Upd, JAK-STAT, AP-1, Myc, Ftz, Ets, Irbp18, Xrp1, Slow border, and Vrille were reported to promote the growth and invasiveness of the Ras V12 ,scrib -tumours (53-57).”

    From A Tumour-Specific Molecular Network Promotes Tumour Growth in <i>Drosophila</i> by Enforcing a JNK-YKI Feedforward Loop (2023) · cites this paper as [57]

    The Results section ('ERK signaling activity increases over time and promotes tumor growth'; page unavailable) reports that RasV12 overexpression increased the size of late-stage scrib mutant tumors. It does not show that ectopic upregulation of the listed transcription-factor network promotes growth or invasiveness; it also reports that RasV12 did not relieve early-tumor growth arrest. (LLM, conf=0.83)

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Authors
Ji, T., Zhang, L., Deng, M., Huang, S., Wang, Y., Pham, T. T., Smith, A. A., Sridhar, V., Cabernard, C., Wang, J., & Yan, Y.
Affiliations
  • Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK)
  • University of Washington (US)
Corresponding author
Yan, Yan
Venue
Disease Models & Mechanisms
Published
2019-08-01
Volume
12
Issue
8
ISSN
  • 1754-8403 (ISSN-L)
  • 1754-8411
OpenAlex
W2966503042
Cited by
25
References
67
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2
FWCI
1.07
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Disease Models & Mechanisms (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Rare & Special e-Zone (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee (GRF16103815, 16104018, 16150016, AoE/M-09/12, N_HKUST606/17, 26102719, C6002-17GF, C7065-18GF)
  • Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission (JCYJ20170306161537148, JCYJ20180223181229868)
  • Innovation and Technology Commission - Hong Kong (ITCPD/17-9, ITS/480/18FP)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Kinase Regulation and GTPase Signaling
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Melanoma and MAPK Pathways
Keywords
Scribble, MAPK signaling, JNK signaling, ERK signaling, tumor plasticity, intratumoral heterogeneity, G2/M cell cycle arrest, tumor growth kinetics, single-cell transcriptomics
MeSH terms
Animals, Drosophila melanogaster, Membrane Proteins, Mutation, Neoplasms, Time Factors, MAP Kinase Signaling System, Drosophila Proteins, Cell Proliferation, Cell Cycle Checkpoints, Transcriptome

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