Reprogramming of cellular metabolism is a key event during tumorigenesis. Despite being known for decades (Warburg effect), the molecular mechanisms regulating this switch remained unexplored. Here, we identify SIRT6 as a novel tumor suppressor that regulates aerobic glycolysis in cancer cells. Importantly, loss of SIRT6 leads to tumor formation without activation of known oncogenes, while transformed SIRT6-deficient cells display increased glycolysis and tumor growth, suggesting that SIRT6 plays a role in both establishment and maintenance of cancer. Using a conditional SIRT6 allele, we show that SIRT6 deletion in vivo increases the number, size and aggressiveness of tumors. SIRT6 also functions as a novel regulator of ribosome metabolism by co-repressing MYC transcriptional activity. Lastly, SIRT6 is selectively downregulated in several human cancers, and expression levels of SIRT6 predict prognosis and tumor-free survival rates, highlighting SIRT6 as a critical modulator of cancer metabolism. Our studies reveal SIRT6 to be a potent tumor suppressor acting to suppress cancer metabolism.

Summary DNA damage is linked to multiple human diseases, such as cancer, neurodegeneration and senescence. Little is known about the role of chromatin accessibility in DNA repair. Here, we find that the histone deacetylase SIRT6 is one of the earliest factors recruited to sites of Double-Strand Breaks (DSBs). SIRT6 recruits the ISWI-chromatin remodeler SNF2H to DSBs, and deacetylates focally histone H3K56. Lack of SIRT6 and SNF2H impairs chromatin remodeling, increasing sensitivity to genotoxic damage and recruitment of downstream factors, such as 53BP1, BRCA1 and RPA. Remarkably, SIRT6 deficient mice exhibit lower levels of chromatin-associated SNF2H in specific tissues, a phenotype accompanied by increased DNA damage. We demonstrate that SIRT6 is critical for recruitment of a chromatin remodeler as an early step in the DNA damage response, indicating that proper unfolding of chromatin plays a rate-limiting role. We present a novel crosstalk between a histone modifier and a chromatin remodeler, regulating a coordinated response to prevent DNA damage.