A Tumor-Specific Molecular Network Promotes Tumor Growth in IDrosophila/I by Enforcing a Jun N-Terminal Kinase–Yorkie Feedforward Loop

• Published in: Cancers Vol. 16; no. 9
• Main Authors: Waghmare, Indrayani, Gangwani, Karishma, Rai, Arushi, Singh, Amit, Kango-Singh, Madhuri
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 01.05.2024
• Subjects: Cancer; Drosophila; Genetic aspects; Growth
• ISSN: 2072-6694; 2072-6694
• DOI: 10.3390/cancers16091768

Cancer genomics and transcriptomics have revealed genes and pathways altered in several cancers. These studies have provided valuable information about cancer cells, their origin, oncogenic processes, and signaling pathways. An emerging challenge is to further characterize activity levels and interactions of pathways to develop a deeper understanding of how specific alterations in these interactions promote tumor growth. Drosophila with its sophisticated genetics has proved valuable in studying cooperative oncogenesis. Using Drosophila tumor models, we report a tumor cell-specific network comprising four pathways. We show that Wingless and effector caspase Dronc direct a signal amplification loop involving JNK and Hippo-effector Yorkie (Yki). Our studies provide evidence from in vivo studies regarding the organization of tumor-promoting oncogenic pathways, which may be useful in developing precise and effective approaches for pathway inhibition. These pathways are evolutionarily conserved from flies to humans, suggesting that findings from flies can be extrapolated to mammalian cancers. Cancer cells expand rapidly in response to altered intercellular and signaling interactions to achieve the hallmarks of cancer. Impaired cell polarity combined with activated oncogenes is known to promote several hallmarks of cancer, e.g., activating invasion by increased activity of Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and sustained proliferative signaling by increased activity of Hippo effector Yorkie (Yki). Thus, JNK, Yki, and their downstream transcription factors have emerged as synergistic drivers of tumor growth through pro-tumor signaling and intercellular interactions like cell competition. However, little is known about the signals that converge onto JNK and Yki in tumor cells and enable tumor cells to achieve the hallmarks of cancer. Here, using mosaic models of cooperative oncogenesis (RasV12,scrib−) in Drosophila, we show that RasV12,scrib− tumor cells grow through the activation of a previously unidentified network comprising Wingless (Wg), Dronc, JNK, and Yki. We show that RasV12,scrib− cells show increased Wg, Dronc, JNK, and Yki signaling, and all these signals are required for the growth of RasV12,scrib− tumors. We report that Wg and Dronc converge onto a JNK–Yki self-reinforcing positive feedback signal-amplification loop that promotes tumor growth. We found that the Wg–Dronc–Yki–JNK molecular network is specifically activated in polarity-impaired tumor cells and not in normal cells, in which apical-basal polarity remains intact. Our findings suggest that the identification of molecular networks may provide significant insights into the key biologically meaningful changes in signaling pathways and paradoxical signals that promote tumorigenesis.