Graphical AbstractHighlights d EMT induces mitochondrial fusion through upregulation of MFN1 d MFN1 is required for PKCz-mediated NUMB phosphorylation for asymmetric cell division d MFN1-PKCz tethers fused mitochondria for segregation into stem cell progeny d Mitochondrial fusion enhances GSH synthesis to promote stem cell self-renewal In BriefWu et al. reveal that EMT, a key process in cancer progression, activates mitochondrial fusion protein, MFN1, which interacts with cell polarity protein complex to direct asymmetric cell division, allowing stem cell progeny to inherit fused mitochondria with enhanced reactive oxygen species scavenging capacity to sustain the stem cell pool.

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We report for the first time the use of experimental electron density (ED) in the Protein Data Bank for modeling of noncovalent interactions (NCIs) for protein–ligand complexes. Our methodology is based on reduced electron density gradient (RDG) theory describing intermolecular NCIs by ED and its first derivative. We established a database named Experimental NCI Database (ExptNCI; ) containing ED saddle points, indicating ∼200,000 NCIs from over 12,000 protein–ligand complexes. We also demonstrated the usage of the database in the case of depicting amide−π interactions in protein–ligand binding systems. In summary, the database provides details on experimentally observed NCIs for protein–ligand complexes and can support future studies including studies on rarely documented NCIs and the development of artificial intelligence models for protein–ligand binding prediction.

Epigenetic regulation plays an important role in governing stem cell fate and tumorigenesis. Lost expression of a key DNA demethylation enzyme TET2 is associated with human cancers and has been linked to stem cell traits in vitro; however, whether and how TET2 regulates mammary stem cell fate and mammary tumorigenesis in vivo remains to be determined. Here, using our recently established mammary specific Tet2 deletion mouse model, the data reveals that TET2 plays a pivotal role in mammary gland development and luminal lineage commitment. We show that TET2 and FOXP1 form a chromatin complex that mediates demethylation of ESR1, GATA3, and FOXA1, three key genes that are known to coordinately orchestrate mammary luminal lineage specification and endocrine response, and also are often silenced by DNA methylation in aggressive breast cancers. Furthermore, Tet2 deletion-PyMT breast cancer mouse model exhibits enhanced mammary tumor development with deficient ERα expression that confers tamoxifen resistance in vivo. As a result, this study elucidates a role for TET2 in governing luminal cell differentiation and endocrine response that underlies breast cancer resistance to anti-estrogen treatments.