Cell Reports (Oct 2016)

Phenotypic Characterization of a Comprehensive Set of MAPK1/ERK2 Missense Mutants

  • Lisa Brenan,
  • Aleksandr Andreev,
  • Ofir Cohen,
  • Sasha Pantel,
  • Atanas Kamburov,
  • Davide Cacchiarelli,
  • Nicole S. Persky,
  • Cong Zhu,
  • Mukta Bagul,
  • Eva M. Goetz,
  • Alex B. Burgin,
  • Levi A. Garraway,
  • Gad Getz,
  • Tarjei S. Mikkelsen,
  • Federica Piccioni,
  • David E. Root,
  • Cory M. Johannessen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2016.09.061
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 4
pp. 1171 – 1183

Abstract

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Tumor-specific genomic information has the potential to guide therapeutic strategies and revolutionize patient treatment. Currently, this approach is limited by an abundance of disease-associated mutants whose biological functions and impacts on therapeutic response are uncharacterized. To begin to address this limitation, we functionally characterized nearly all (99.84%) missense mutants of MAPK1/ERK2, an essential effector of oncogenic RAS and RAF. Using this approach, we discovered rare gain- and loss-of-function ERK2 mutants found in human tumors, revealing that, in the context of this assay, mutational frequency alone cannot identify all functionally impactful mutants. Gain-of-function ERK2 mutants induced variable responses to RAF-, MEK-, and ERK-directed therapies, providing a reference for future treatment decisions. Tumor-associated mutations spatially clustered in two ERK2 effector-recruitment domains yet produced mutants with opposite phenotypes. This approach articulates an allele-characterization framework that can be scaled to meet the goals of genome-guided oncology.

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