Pei Wen1,3, Huiyan Lei1,3, Hua Deng1,3, Su Deng2, Carla Rodriguez Tirado2, Meiling Wang1, Ping Mu2, Yonggang Zheng1 and Duojia Pan1 1Department of Physiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390, USA; 2Department of Molecular Biology, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390, USA Corresponding author: duojia.panutsouthwestern.edu

↵3 These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Tumor suppressor genes play critical roles in normal tissue homeostasis, and their dysregulation underlies human diseases including cancer. Besides human genetics, model organisms such as Drosophila have been instrumental in discovering tumor suppressor pathways that were subsequently shown to be highly relevant in human cancer. Here we show that hyperplastic disc (Hyd), one of the first tumor suppressors isolated genetically in Drosophila and encoding an E3 ubiquitin ligase with hitherto unknown substrates, and Lines (Lin), best known for its role in embryonic segmentation, define an obligatory tumor suppressor protein complex (Hyd–Lin) that targets the zinc finger-containing oncoprotein Bowl for ubiquitin-mediated degradation, with Lin functioning as a substrate adaptor to recruit Bowl to Hyd for ubiquitination. Interestingly, the activity of the Hyd–Lin complex is directly inhibited by a micropeptide encoded by another zinc finger gene, drumstick (drm), which functions as a pseudosubstrate by displacing Bowl from the Hyd–Lin complex, thus stabilizing Bowl. We further identify the epigenetic regulator Polycomb repressive complex1 (PRC1) as a critical upstream regulator of the Hyd–Lin–Bowl pathway by directly repressing the transcription of the micropeptide drm. Consistent with these molecular studies, we show that genetic inactivation of Hyd, Lin, or PRC1 resulted in Bowl-dependent hyperplastic tissue overgrowth in vivo. We also provide evidence that the mammalian homologs of Hyd (UBR5, known to be recurrently dysregulated in various human cancers), Lin (LINS1), and Bowl (OSR1/2) constitute an analogous protein degradation pathway in human cells, and that OSR2 promotes prostate cancer tumorigenesis. Altogether, these findings define a previously unrecognized tumor suppressor pathway that links epigenetic program to regulated protein degradation in tissue growth control and tumorigenesis.

Received April 24, 2024. Accepted July 24, 2024.