Identification of PBX1 target genes in cancer cells by global mapping of PBX1 binding sites
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
PBX1 is a TALE homeodomain transcription factor involved in organogenesis and tumorigenesis. Although it has been shown that ovarian, breast, and melanoma cancer cells depend on PBX1 for cell growth and survival, the molecular mechanism of how PBX1 promotes tumorigenesis remains unclear. Here, we applied an integrated approach by overlapping PBX1 ChIP-chip targets with the PBX1-regulated transcriptome in ovarian cancer cells to identify genes whose transcription was directly regulated by PBX1. We further determined if PBX1 target genes identified in ovarian cancer cells were co-overexpressed with PBX1 in carcinoma tissues. By analyzing TCGA gene expression microarray datasets from ovarian serous carcinomas, we found co-upregulation of PBX1 and a significant number of its direct target genes. Among the PBX1 target genes, a homeodomain protein MEOX1 whose DNA binding motif was enriched in PBX1-immunoprecipicated DNA sequences was selected for functional analysis. We demonstrated that MEOX1 protein interacts with PBX1 protein and inhibition of MEOX1 yields a similar growth inhibitory phenotype as PBX1 suppression. Furthermore, ectopically expressed MEOX1 functionally rescued the PBX1-withdrawn effect, suggesting MEOX1 mediates the cellular growth signal of PBX1. These results demonstrate that MEOX1 is a critical target gene and cofactor of PBX1 in ovarian cancers.
Date Issued
2012-05-02
Date Acceptance
2012-03-26
Citation
PLOS One, 2012, 7 (5)
ISSN
1932-6203
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Journal / Book Title
PLOS One
Volume
7
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© 2012 The Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Identifier
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22567123
PII: PONE-D-11-24864
Subjects
Binding Sites
Cell Line, Tumor
Chromatin Immunoprecipitation
DNA-Binding Proteins
Female
Humans
Ovarian Neoplasms
Proto-Oncogene Proteins
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
Transcription Factors
General Science & Technology
MD Multidisciplinary
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Article Number
e36054