In vivo overexpression of Emi1 promotes chromosome instability and tumorigenesis.

Cell cycle genes are often aberrantly expressed in cancer, but how their misexpression drives tumorigenesis mostly remains unclear. From S phase to early mitosis, EMI1 (also known as FBXO5) inhibits the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome, which controls cell cycle progression through the sequential degradation of various substrates. By analyzing 7403 human tumor samples, we find that EMI1 overexpression is widespread in solid tumors but not in blood cancers. In solid cancers, EMI1 overexpression is a strong prognostic marker for poor patient outcome. To investigate causality, we generated a transgenic mouse model in which we overexpressed Emi1. Emi1-overexpressing animals develop a wide variety of solid tumors, in particular adenomas and carcinomas with inflammation and lymphocyte infiltration, but not blood cancers. These tumors are significantly larger and more penetrant, abundant, proliferative and metastatic than control tumors. In addition, they are highly aneuploid with tumor cells frequently being in early mitosis and showing mitotic abnormalities, including lagging and incorrectly segregating chromosomes. We further demonstrate in vitro that even though EMI1 overexpression may cause mitotic arrest and cell death, it also promotes chromosome instability (CIN) following delayed chromosome alignment and anaphase onset. In human solid tumors, EMI1 is co-expressed with many markers for CIN and EMI1 overexpression is a stronger marker for CIN than most well-established ones. The fact that Emi1 overexpression promotes CIN and the formation of solid cancers in vivo indicates that Emi1 overexpression actively drives solid tumorigenesis. These novel mechanistic insights have important clinical implications.

The cancer biology of whole-chromosome instability.

One form of chromosome instability (CIN), the recurrent missegregation of whole chromosomes during cell division (W-CIN), leads to aneuploidy. Although W-CIN is a hallmark of most cancers, mutations in genes involved in chromosome segregation are exceedingly rare. We discuss an oncogene-induced mitotic stress model that provides a mechanistic framework to explain this paradox. We also review the tumor-promoting and tumor-suppressing consequences of W-CIN. Importantly, we do this in the context of cancer as a complex systemic disease, rather than as a simple linearly progressing disorder that arises from a single abnormal cell population. Accordingly, we highlight the often neglected effects of W-CIN on key non-cell-autonomous entities, such as the immune system and the tumor microenvironment. Distinct tissue-specific susceptibilities to W-CIN-induced tumorigenesis and the clinical implications of W-CIN are also discussed.