When oxygen is abundant, quiescent cells efficiently extract energy from glucose primarily by oxidative phosphorylation, whereas under the same conditions tumour cells consume glucose more avidly, converting it to lactate. This long-observed phenomenon is known as aerobic glycolysis 1 , and is important for cell growth 2, 3. Because aerobic glycolysis is only useful to growing cells, it is tightly regulated in a proliferation-linked manner4. Inmammals, this is partly achieved through control of pyruvate kinase isoform expression. The embryonic pyruvate kinase isoform, PKM2, is almost universally re-expressed in cancer2, and promotes aerobic glycolysis, whereas the adult isoform, PKM1, promotes oxidative phosphorylation 2 . These two isoforms result from mutually exclusive alternative splicing of the PKM pre-mRNA, reflecting inclusion of either exon 9 (PKM1) or exon 10 (PKM2). Here we show that three heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) proteins, polypyrimidine tract binding protein (PTB, also known as hnRNPI), hnRNPA1 and hnRNPA2, bind repressively to sequences flanking exon 9, resulting in exon 10 inclusion. We also demonstrate that the oncogenic transcription factor c-Myc upregulates transcription of PTB, hnRNPA1 and hnRNPA2, ensuring a high PKM2/PKM1 ratio. Establishing a relevance to cancer, we show that human gliomas overexpress c-Myc, PTB, hnRNPA1 and hnRNPA2 in a manner that correlates with PKM2 expression. Our results thus define a pathway that regulates an alternative splicing event required for tumour cell proliferation.Alternative splicing of PKM has an important role in determining the metabolic phenotype of mammalian cells. The single exon difference imparts the enzymes produced with important functional distinctions. For example, PKM2, but not PKM1, is regulated by the binding of tyrosine phosphorylated peptides, which results in release of the allosteric activator fructose-1-6-bisphosphate and inhibition of pyruvate kinase activity 5 , a property that might allow growth-factor-initiated signalling cascades to channel glycolytic intermediates into biosynthetic processes. The importance of tumour reversion to PKM2 was underscored by experiments in which replacement of PKM2 with PKM1 in tumour cells resulted in markedly reduced growth 2 . Consistent with a critical role in proliferation, re-expression of PKM2 in tumours is robust 2 , although little is known about the regulation of this process. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptNature. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 October 5. We set out to identify RNA binding proteins that might regulate PKM alternative splicing. To this end, we prepared an [α-32 P]UTP-labelled 250-nucleotide RNA spanning the exon 9 (E9) 5′ splice site (EI9), previously identified as inhibitory to E9 inclusion 6 , as well as a labelled RNA from a corresponding region of E10 (EI10) (Fig. 1b), and performed ultraviolet crosslinking assays with HeLa nuclear extracts 7 . After separation by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), multiple proteins...

Alternative splicing of mRNA precursors is a nearly ubiquitous and extremely flexible point of gene control in humans. It provides cells with the opportunity to create protein isoforms of differing, even opposing, functions from a single gene. Cancer cells often take advantage of this flexibility to produce proteins that promote growth and survival. Many of the isoforms produced in this manner are developmentally regulated and are preferentially re-expressed in tumors. Emerging insights into this process indicate that pathways that are frequently deregulated in cancer often play important roles in promoting aberrant splicing, which in turn contributes to all aspects of tumor biology.

Few cell signals match the impact of the transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) family in metazoan biology. TGFβ cytokines regulate cell fate decisions during development, tissue homeostasis and regeneration, and are major players in tumorigenesis, fibrotic disorders, immune malfunctions and various congenital diseases. The effects of the TGFβ family are mediated by a combinatorial set of ligands and receptors and by a common set of receptor-activated mothers against decapentaplegic homologue (SMAD) transcription factors, yet the effects can differ dramatically depending on the cell type and the conditions. Recent progress has illuminated a model of TGFβ action in which SMADs bind genome-wide in partnership with lineage-determining transcription factors and additionally integrate inputs from other pathways and the chromatin to trigger specific cellular responses. These new insights clarify the operating logic of the TGFβ pathway in physiology and disease.

TGF-β signaling can be pro-tumorigenic or tumor suppressive. We investigated this duality in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA), which, with other gastrointestinal cancers, exhibits frequent inactivation of the TGF-β mediator Smad4. We show that TGF-β induces an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), generally considered a pro-tumorigenic event. However, in TGF-β sensitive PDA cells, EMT becomes lethal by converting TGF-β-induced Sox4 from an enforcer of tumorigenesis into a promoter of apoptosis. This is the result of an EMT-linked remodeling of the cellular transcription factor landscape, including the repression of the gastrointestinal lineage-master regulator Klf5. Klf5 cooperates with Sox4 in oncogenesis and prevents Sox4-induced apoptosis. Smad4 is required for EMT but dispensable for Sox4 induction by TGF-β. TGF-β-induced Sox4 is thus geared to bolster progenitor identity, while simultaneous Smad4-dependent EMT strips Sox4 of an essential partner in oncogenesis. Our work demonstrates that TGF-β tumor suppression functions through an EMT-mediated disruption of a lineage-specific transcriptional network.