A transcription-based mechanism for oncogene-induced lethality in BRCA1/2-deficient cells [EdU-seq]
Heterozygous germline mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 predispose to breast, ovarian, as well as other cancers. The main physiological function of BRCA1 and BRCA2 is to facilitate DNA replication, by stabilising and re-starting stalled replication forks. Consequently, inactivation of either BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes leads to replication pathologies and accumulation of DNA double strand breaks. Similar to BRCA1/2 inactivation, oncogene overexpression interferes with replication and inflicts DNA damage. It remains unclear how the replication defects in the two settings differ from each other and what is their combined effect on cell viability. Here, we report that accumulation of ß-catenin, an oncogene of the WNT signalling pathway, is synthetically lethal with BRCA1/2 inactivation. We identify two transcription-dependent mechanisms that mediate oncogene toxicity in the context of BRCA1/2 deficiency. Firstly, accumulation of ?-catenin activates E2F-dependent transcription, which accelerates G1/S transition, thus counteracting the delayed S-phase entry caused by BRCA1/2 abrogation. This, in turn, triggers illegitimate origin firing leading to fork collapse, DNA damage and deregulation of gene expression. Secondly, we find that ß-catenin accumulation suppresses transcription of CDKN1A gene encoding p21, a modulator of fork progression. Decreased replication rates represent a hallmark of BRCA2 deficiency. Through p21 downregulation, ß-catenin accelerates replication fork progression in BRCA2-deficient cells, thereby inflicting DNA damage and triggering cell death. Thus, our results demonstrate that oncogene-driven premature S-phase entry and increased replication rate are lethal in the context of BRCA1/2 abrogation, which explains the mutual exclusivity between oncogene activation and BRCA1/2 gene mutations in human tumours. Overall design: EdUseq-HU assays to monitor nascent DNA synthesis in BRCA1+/+ or BRCA1-/- RPE1 cells ±GSK3 inhibitor (LY2090314) and BRCA2-proficient or -deficient H1299 cells ±GSK3 inhibitor (LY2090314)