Abstract
The transcriptional repressor Slug is best known to control epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) and promote cancer invasion/metastasis. In this study, we demonstrate that Slug is temporally regulated during cell cycle progression. At G1/S transition, cyclin E–cyclin-dependent kinase 2 mediates the phosphorylation of Slug at Ser-54 and Ser-104, resulting in its ubiquitylation and degradation. Non-phosphorylatable Slug is markedly stabilized at G1/S transition compared with wild-type Slug and greatly leads to downregulation of DNA synthesis and checkpoint-related proteins, including TOP1, DNA Ligase IV and Rad17, reduces cell proliferation, delays S-phase progression and contributes to genome instability. Our results indicate that Slug has multifaceted roles in cancer progression by controlling both EMT and genome stability.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 50 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $5.18 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Malumbres M, Barbacid M . Mammalian cyclin-dependent kinases. Trends Biochem Sci 2005; 30: 630–641.
Hwang HC, Clurman BE . Cyclin E in normal and neoplastic cell cycles. Oncogene 2005; 24: 2776–2786.
Sheaff RJ, Groudine M, Gordon M, Roberts JM, Clurman BE . Cyclin E-CDK2 is a regulator of p27Kip1. Genes Dev 1997; 11: 1464–1478.
Liu E, Li X, Yan F, Zhao Q, Wu X . Cyclin-dependent kinases phosphorylate human Cdt1 and induce its degradation. J Biol Chem 2004; 279: 17283–17288.
Zhao J, Dynlacht B, Imai T, Hori T, Harlow E . Expression of NPAT, a novel substrate of cyclin E-CDK2, promotes S-phase entry. Genes Dev 1998; 12: 456–461.
Dyson N . The regulation of E2F by pRB-family proteins. Genes Dev 1998; 12: 2245–2262.
Nieto MA, Sargent MG, Wilkinson DG, Cooke J . Control of cell behavior during vertebrate development by Slug, a zinc finger gene. Science 1994; 264: 835–839.
Mayor R, Morgan R, Sargent MG . Induction of the prospective neural crest of Xenopus. Development 1995; 121: 767–777.
Hajra KM, Chen DY, Fearon ER . The SLUG zinc-finger protein represses E-cadherin in breast cancer. Cancer Res 2002; 62: 1613–1618.
Bolos V, Peinado H, Perez-Moreno MA, Fraga MF, Esteller M, Cano A . The transcription factor Slug represses E-cadherin expression and induces epithelial to mesenchymal transitions: a comparison with Snail and E47 repressors. J Cell Sci 2003; 116: 499–511.
Shih JY, Yang PC . The EMT regulator slug and lung carcinogenesis. Carcinogenesis 2011; 32: 1299–1304.
Wang SP, Wang WL, Chang YL, Wu CT, Chao YC, Kao SH et al. p53 controls cancer cell invasion by inducing the MDM2-mediated degradation of Slug. Nat Cell Biol 2009; 11: 694–704.
Emadi Baygi M, Soheili ZS, Essmann F, Deezagi A, Engers R, Goering W et al. Slug/SNAI2 regulates cell proliferation and invasiveness of metastatic prostate cancer cell lines. Tumour Biol 2010; 31: 297–307.
Liu J, Uygur B, Zhang Z, Shao L, Romero D, Vary C et al. Slug inhibits proliferation of human prostate cancer cells via downregulation of cyclin D1 expression. Prostate 2010; 70: 1768–1777.
Turner FE, Broad S, Khanim FL, Jeanes A, Talma S, Hughes S et al. Slug regulates integrin expression and cell proliferation in human epidermal keratinocytes. J Biol Chem 2006; 281: 21321–21331.
Vega S, Morales AV, Ocana OH, Valdes F, Fabregat I, Nieto MA . Snail blocks the cell cycle and confers resistance to cell death. Genes Dev 2004; 18: 1131–1143.
Morgan DO . Principles of CDK regulation. Nature 1995; 374: 131–134.
Hengst L, Reed SI . Translational control of p27Kip1 accumulation during the cell cycle. Science 1996; 271: 1861–1864.
Siu KT, Rosner MR, Minella AC . An integrated view of cyclin E function and regulation. Cell Cycle 2012; 11: 57–64.
Sakaue-Sawano A, Kurokawa H, Morimura T, Hanyu A, Hama H, Osawa H et al. Visualizing spatiotemporal dynamics of multicellular cell-cycle progression. Cell 2008; 132: 487–498.
Sakaue-Sawano A, Kobayashi T, Ohtawa K, Miyawaki A . Drug-induced cell cycle modulation leading to cell-cycle arrest, nuclear mis-segregation, or endoreplication. BMC Cell Biol 2011; 12: 2.
Aguilera A, Gomez-Gonzalez B . Genome instability: a mechanistic view of its causes and consequences. Nat Rev Genet 2008; 9: 204–217.
Tuduri S, Crabbe L, Conti C, Tourriere H, Holtgreve-Grez H, Jauch A et al. Topoisomerase I suppresses genomic instability by preventing interference between replication and transcription. Nat Cell Biol 2009; 11: 1315–1324.
Mills KD, Ferguson DO, Essers J, Eckersdorff M, Kanaar R, Alt FW . Rad54 and DNA Ligase IV cooperate to maintain mammalian chromatid stability. Genes Dev 2004; 18: 1283–1292.
Karanjawala ZE, Grawunder U, Hsieh CL, Lieber MR . The nonhomologous DNA end joining pathway is important for chromosome stability in primary fibroblasts. Curr Biol 1999; 9: 1501–1504.
Wang X, Zou L, Zheng H, Wei Q, Elledge SJ, Li L . Genomic instability and endoreduplication triggered by RAD17 deletion. Genes Dev 2003; 17: 965–970.
Dhar SK, Delmolino L, Dutta A . Architecture of the human origin recognition complex. J Biol Chem 2001; 276: 29067–29071.
Carrano AC, Eytan E, Hershko A, Pagano M . SKP2 is required for ubiquitin-mediated degradation of the CDK inhibitor p27. Nat Cell Biol 1999; 1: 193–199.
Vernon AE, LaBonne C . Slug stability is dynamically regulated during neural crest development by the F-box protein Ppa. Development 2006; 133: 3359–3370.
Hinds PW, Mittnacht S, Dulic V, Arnold A, Reed SI, Weinberg RA . Regulation of retinoblastoma protein functions by ectopic expression of human cyclins. Cell 1992; 70: 993–1006.
Chu YW, Yang PC, Yang SC, Shyu YC, Hendrix MJ, Wu R et al. Selection of invasive and metastatic subpopulations from a human lung adenocarcinoma cell line. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 1997; 17: 353–360.
Yuan A, Yu CJ, Luh KT, Kuo SH, Lee YC, Yang PC . Aberrant p53 expression correlates with expression of vascular endothelial growth factor mRNA and interleukin-8 mRNA and neoangiogenesis in non-small-cell lung cancer. J Clin Oncol 2002; 20: 900–910.
Acknowledgements
The proteomics data analysis by LTQ-Orbitrap XL hybrid mass spectrometer was performed by the Academia Sinica Common Mass Spectrometry Facilities located at the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Taipei, Taiwan. shRNA constructs were obtained from the National RNAi Core Facility at the Institute of Molecular Biology/Genomic Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. We thank Szu-Hua Pan, Pei-Fang Hung and Shu-Wei Lin for technical assistance. S-PW is supported by a Human Frontier Science Program long-term fellowship. This work was supported by grants from the National Science Council (NSC99-2628-B-006-031-MY3, NSC101-2325-B-006-018, NSC100-2321-B-002-071, NSC101-2321-B-002-068 and NSC102-2811-B-002-069) and National Taiwan University (101R7601–2).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Supplementary Information accompanies this paper on the Oncogene website
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, WL., Huang, HC., Kao, SH. et al. Slug is temporally regulated by cyclin E in cell cycle and controls genome stability. Oncogene 34, 1116–1125 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2014.58
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2014.58
This article is cited by
-
FBXO28 suppresses liver cancer invasion and metastasis by promoting PKA-dependent SNAI2 degradation
Oncogene (2023)
-
LATS kinases and SLUG regulate the transition to advanced stage in aggressive oral cancer cells
Scientific Reports (2022)
-
Transcriptional and post-transcriptional control of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity: why so many regulators?
Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (2022)
-
pSlugS158 immunohistochemistry is a novel promising mitotic marker for FFPE samples: a pilot study
Virchows Archiv (2022)
-
Ubiquitin-specific peptidase 37: an important cog in the oncogenic machinery of cancerous cells
Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research (2021)