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Cytosolic FoxO1 is essential for the induction of autophagy and tumour suppressor activity

Nature Cell Biology volume 12, pages 665–675 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Autophagy is characterized by the sequestration of bulk cytoplasm, including damaged proteins and organelles, and delivery of the cargo to lysosomes for degradation. Although the autophagic pathway is also linked to tumour suppression activity, the mechanism is not yet clear. Here we report that cytosolic FoxO1, a forkhead O family protein, is a mediator of autophagy. Endogenous FoxO1 was required for autophagy in human cancer cell lines in response to oxidative stress or serum starvation, but this process was independent of the transcriptional activity of FoxO1. In response to stress, FoxO1 was acetylated by dissociation from sirtuin-2 (SIRT2), a NAD+-dependent histone deacetylase, and the acetylated FoxO1 bound to Atg7, an E1-like protein, to influence the autophagic process leading to cell death. This FoxO1-modulated cell death is associated with tumour suppressor activity in human colon tumours and a xenograft mouse model. Our finding links the anti-neoplastic activity of FoxO1 and the process of autophagy.

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Figure 1: Endogenous FoxO1 is required for induction of autophagy.
Figure 2: Ectopic cytosolic FoxO1 elicits autophagy.
Figure 3: Cellular localization, transactivity or DNA-binding activity of different FoxO1 mutants in H1299 cells or in HCT116 cells in response to serum starvation or H2O2 treatment.
Figure 4: FoxO1 is acetylated in response to serum starvation or oxidative stress by dissociation from SIRT2.
Figure 5: Acetylated FoxO1 interacts with Atg7.
Figure 6: Acetylated FoxO1 is required for the induction of autophagy.
Figure 7: Cytosolic FoxO1 induces autophagic, but not apoptotic, cell death.
Figure 8: Cytosolic FoxO1 shows tumour suppressor activity in a xenograft mouse model, and a relationship between FoxO1 and p62 level in human cancer tissue samples.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Noboru Mizushima for critical reading of the manuscript and for constructive comments. We also thank Noboru Mizushima, Akiyoshi Fukamizu, Qiang Tong and Toren Finkel for providing us with the plasmids used in this study. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 30425017, 90919030 and 30921062) and grants (2005CB522403, 2006CB910300 and B07001) from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Peking University Health Science Center, 100191, Beijing, China

    Ying Zhao, Jing Yang, Wenjuan Liao, Xiangyu Liu, Hui Zhang, Donglai Wang, Jingnan Feng & Wei-Guo Zhu

  2. Department of Surgery, the Secondary Affiliated Hospital, Peking University Health Science Center, 100044, Beijing, China

    Hui Zhang & Shan Wang

  3. Department of Biological Science and Biotechnology, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China

    Li Yu

  4. School of Oncology, Peking University Health Science Center, 00142, Beijing, China

    Wei-Guo Zhu

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Contributions

Y.Z. performed most of the experimental work. J.Y. performed mRNA expression experiments. W. L. performed the construction and extraction of plasmids. X.L. and D.W. performed experiments on nude mice. H.Z and S.W. provided human colon cancer tissues and normal tissues and conducted pathological analysis on human samples. J.F. helped the data analysis. L.Y. helped in the design of some experiments. W.G.Z. wrote the manuscript and supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Wei-Guo Zhu.

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Zhao, Y., Yang, J., Liao, W. et al. Cytosolic FoxO1 is essential for the induction of autophagy and tumour suppressor activity. Nat Cell Biol 12, 665–675 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2069

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