f PALB2/FANCN is mutated in breast and pancreatic cancers and Fanconi anemia (FA). It controls the intranuclear localization, stability, and DNA repair function of BRCA2 and links BRCA1 and BRCA2 in DNA homologous recombination repair and breast cancer suppression. Here, we show that PALB2 directly interacts with KEAP1, an oxidative stress sensor that binds and represses the master antioxidant transcription factor NRF2. PALB2 shares with NRF2 a highly conserved ETGE-type KEAP1 binding motif and can effectively compete with NRF2 for KEAP1 binding. PALB2 promotes NRF2 accumulation and function in the nucleus and lowers the cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level. In addition, PALB2 also regulates the rate of NRF2 export from the nucleus following induction. Our findings identify PALB2 as a regulator of cellular redox homeostasis and provide a new link between oxidative stress and the development of cancer and FA.T he two major high-penetrance breast cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 encode very large proteins with a critical function in homologous recombinational repair (HRR) of DNA double-strand breaks (15). PALB2 was discovered as a major BRCA2 binding partner that controls its intranuclear localization, stability, recombinational repair, and DNA damage checkpoint functions (38). Immediately after its discovery, germ line truncating mutations in PALB2 were identified in familial breast cancer (4,22,31) and the N subtype of Fanconi anemia (FA-N) (23, 37). Later, PALB2 was also found to be mutated in familial pancreatic cancer, being the second most highly mutated pancreatic susceptibility gene after BRCA2 (7,25). Furthermore, hypermethylation of the PALB2 promoter occurs in a significant fraction (ϳ7%) of both sporadic and familial breast/ovarian cancer cases (21). To date, dozens of truncating PALB2 mutations have been identified in cancer families around the world, causing moderate to very high risks of breast cancer (1,26,30). Finally, certain single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the gene have been suggested to confer an increased risk of breast cancer (2).The PALB2 protein contains a coiled-coil domain at the N terminus and a series of WD repeats at its C terminus (Fig. 1A). The WD repeats together form a ␤-propeller structure that directly binds BRCA2 (18), and the N-terminal coiled-coil motif was later found to directly bind BRCA1 (28,41,42). Approximately 50% of PALB2 and 50% of BRCA2 are associated with each other in the cell with high affinity (28, 38). The stoichiometry of PALB2-BRCA1 binding appears to be much lower (28, 42). However, the interaction has proved crucial for HRR as several mutations generated in each protein that abrogate the interaction have been shown to greatly compromise repair efficiency (28,41,42). Furthermore, multiple naturally occurring, patient-derived missense variants that disrupt PALB2 binding have been identified in both BRCA1 and BRCA2, and all of them have been found to abrogate HRR (28, 38). Thus, PALB2 links BRCA1 and BRCA2 in HRR and breast cancer s...

NRF2 is a transcription factor serving as a master regulator of the expression of many genes involved in cellular responses to oxidative and other stresses. In the absence of stress, NRF2 is constantly synthesized but maintained at low levels as it is targeted by KEAP1 for ubiquitination and proteasome-mediated degradation. NRF2 binds KEAP1 mainly through a conserved “ETGE” motif that has also been found in several other proteins, such as DPP3, which has been shown to bind KEAP1 and enhance NRF2 function upon overexpression. Here we demonstrate the interaction between endogenous DPP3 and endogenous KEAP1. We further show that the DPP3-KEAP1 interaction is strongly induced by hydrogen peroxide and that DPP3 is required for timely NRF2 induction and nuclear accumulation in the estrogen receptor (ER)-positive MCF7 breast cancer cells. Moreover, we present evidence that the binding of DPP3 to KEAP1 stabilizes the latter. Finally, we show that DPP3 is overexpressed in breast cancer and that elevated levels of DPP3 mRNA correlate with increased NRF2 downstream gene expression and poor prognosis, particularly for ER-positive breast cancer. Our studies reveal novel insights into the regulation of NRF2 and identify DPP3 and an NRF2 transcriptional signature as potential biomarkers for breast cancer prognosis and treatment.

Hereditary breast cancers stem from germline mutations in susceptibility genes such as BRCA1, BRCA2 and PALB2, whose products function in the DNA damage response and redox regulation. Autophagy is an intracellular waste disposal and stress mitigation mechanism important for alleviating oxidative stress and DNA damage response activation; it can either suppress or promote cancer, but its role in breast cancer is unknown. Here we show that, similar to Brca1 and Brca2, ablation of Palb2 in mouse mammary gland resulted in tumor development with long latency and the tumors harbored mutations in Trp53. Interestingly, impaired autophagy, due to monoallelic loss of the essential autophagy gene Becn1, reduced Palb2-associated mammary tumorigenesis in Trp53-wild type but not conditionally null background. These results indicate that, in the face of DNA damage and oxidative stress elicited by PALB2 loss, p53 is a barrier to cancer development, whereas autophagy facilitates cell survival and tumorigenesis.

The major breast cancer suppressor proteins BRCA1 and BRCA2 play essential roles in homologous recombination (HR)-mediated DNA repair, which is thought to be critical for tumor suppression. The two BRCA proteins are linked by a third tumor suppressor, PALB2, in the HR pathway. While truncating mutations in these genes are generally pathogenic, interpretations of missense variants remains a challenge. To date, patient-derived missense variants that disrupt PALB2 binding have been identified in BRCA1 and BRCA2; however, there has not been sufficient evidence to prove their pathogenicity in humans, and no variants in PALB2 that disrupt either its BRCA1 or BRCA2 binding have been reported. Here, we report on the identification of a novel PALB2 variant, c.104T>C [p.L35P], that segregated in a family with a strong history of breast cancer. Functional analyses showed that L35P abrogates the PALB2-BRCA1 interaction and completely disables its abilities to promote HR and confer resistance to platinum salts and PARP inhibitors. Whole-exome sequencing of a breast cancer from a c.104T>C carrier revealed a second, somatic, truncating mutation affecting PALB2, and the tumor displays hallmark genomic features of tumors with BRCA mutations and HR defects, cementing the pathogenicity of L35P. Parallel analyses of other germline variants in the PALB2 N-terminal BRCA1-binding domain identified multiple variants that affect HR function to varying degrees, suggesting their possible contribution to cancer development. Our findings establish L35P as the first pathogenic missense mutation in PALB2 and directly demonstrate the requirement of the PALB2-BRCA1 interaction for breast cancer suppression.