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Inherited duplications of PPP2R3B predispose to nevi and melanoma via a C21orf91-driven proliferative phenotype

  • Satyamaanasa Polubothu
  • , Davide Zecchin
  • , Lara Al-Olabi
  • , Daniël A Lionarons
  • , Mark Harland
  • , Stuart Horswell
  • , Anna C Thomas
  • , Lilian Hunt
  • , Nathan Wlodarchak
  • , Paula Aguilera
  • , Sarah Brand
  • , Dale Bryant
  • , Cristina Carrera
  • , Hui Chen
  • , Greg Elgar
  • , Catherine A Harwood
  • , Michael Howell
  • , Lionel Larue
  • , Sam Loughlin
  • , Jeff MacDonald
  • Josep Malvehy, Sara Martin Barberan, Vanessa Martins da Silva, Miriam Molina, Deborah Morrogh, Dale Moulding, Jérémie Nsengimana, Alan Pittman, Joan-Anton Puig-Butillé, Kiran Parmar, Neil J Sebire, Stephen Scherer, Paulina Stadnik, Philip Stanier, Gemma Tell, Regula Waelchli, Mehdi Zarrei, Susana Puig, Véronique Bataille, Yongna Xing, Eugene Healy, Gudrun E Moore, Wei-Li Di, Julia Newton-Bishop, Julian Downward, Veronica A Kinsler
  • The Francis Crick Institute
  • UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
  • St James’s University Hospital
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Unit of Medical and Molecular Genetics, University Hospital Sant Joan de Deu Barcelona, 08950, Barcelona, Spain.
  • Blizzard Institute
  • Developmental Genetics of Melanocytes
  • Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust
  • The Hospital for Sick Children
  • St. George's University of London
  • MRC Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King's College London, London, United Kingdom; Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
  • Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, WC1N 3JH, UK.
  • University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

PURPOSE: Much of the heredity of melanoma remains unexplained. We sought predisposing germline copy-number variants using a rare disease approach.

METHODS: Whole-genome copy-number findings in patients with melanoma predisposition syndrome congenital melanocytic nevus were extrapolated to a sporadic melanoma cohort. Functional effects of duplications in PPP2R3B were investigated using immunohistochemistry, transcriptomics, and stable inducible cellular models, themselves characterized using RNAseq, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), reverse phase protein arrays, immunoblotting, RNA interference, immunocytochemistry, proliferation, and migration assays.

RESULTS: We identify here a previously unreported genetic susceptibility to melanoma and melanocytic nevi, familial duplications of gene PPP2R3B. This encodes PR70, a regulatory unit of critical phosphatase PP2A. Duplications increase expression of PR70 in human nevus, and increased expression in melanoma tissue correlates with survival via a nonimmunological mechanism. PPP2R3B overexpression induces pigment cell switching toward proliferation and away from migration. Importantly, this is independent of the known microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF)-controlled switch, instead driven by C21orf91. Finally, C21orf91 is demonstrated to be downstream of MITF as well as PR70.

CONCLUSION: This work confirms the power of a rare disease approach, identifying a previously unreported copy-number change predisposing to melanocytic neoplasia, and discovers C21orf91 as a potentially targetable hub in the control of phenotype switching.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1636-1647
Number of pages12
JournalGenetics in medicine
Volume23
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2021

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

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