The Atonal Proneural Transcription Factor Links Differentiation and Tumor Formation in Drosophila

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Abstract
The acquisition of terminal cell fate and onset of differentiation are instructed by cell type–specific master control genes. Loss of differentiation is frequently observed during cancer progression, but the underlying causes and mechanisms remain poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that master regulators of differentiation may be key regulators of tumor formation. Using loss- and gain-of-function analyses in Drosophila, we describe a critical anti-oncogenic function for the atonal transcription factor in the fly retina, where atonal instructs tissue differentiation. In the tumor context, atonal acts by regulating cell proliferation and death via the JNK stress response pathway. Combined with evidence that atonal's mammalian homolog, ATOH1, is a tumor suppressor gene, our data support a critical, evolutionarily conserved, function for ato in oncogenesis. During embryonic development, cells become more and more specialized, and this process is referred to as differentiation. In contrast to normal adult cells, cancer cells—like embryonic cells—display fewer differentiated properties. It has been postulated that the acquisition of terminal differentiation helps inhibit tumor formation; however, no direct evidence for this hypothesis was available. The development of the eye in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has long been used as a model for studying genetic factors controlling differentiation. More recently, eye development has also been used to study how tumors can form and progress. In this study, we used this model to show that genes, such as atonal, that instruct the differentiation of specific tissues can act as tumor suppressers and inhibit the formation and progression of tumors in those tissues. Losing such genes can generate tumors, whereas activating them can strongly inhibit these tumors.