Description
Somatic ribosomal protein defects have recently been described in cancer, yet their impact on cellular transcription and translation remain poorly understood. Here we integrated mRNA sequencing, ribosome footprinting, polysomal RNA seq and quantitative mass spectrometry datasets obtained from an isogenic mouse lymphoid cell model in order to study the T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) associated R98S mutation in ribosomal protein L10 (RPL10 R98S). RPL10 R98S induced changes in protein levels were to a much larger extent caused by transcriptional then translational changes and RPL10 R98S cells showed a gene signature corresponding to deregulation of hematopoietic transcription factors. Phosphoserine phosphatase (PSPH), a key enzyme in serine biosynthesis, displayed elevated transcription and translation and was one of the proteins showing the strongest upregulation in RPL10 R98S cells. Increased Psph protein levels were confirmed in RPL10 R98S engineered JURKAT cells and in hematopoietic cell cultures derived from Rpl10 R98S knock-in mice. Moreover, elevated serine and glycine biosynthesis in RPL10 R98S cells was supported by metabolic flux analyses. Analysis of PSPH expression levels in T-ALL patient samples revealed that PSPH upregulation is a generalized phenomenon in this disease, associated with elevated circulating serine and glycine levels. Addition of serine and glycine enhanced survival of stromal and myeloid cells, suggesting supportive effects on the hematopoietic niche. Finally, reduction of PSPH expression levels in T-ALL cell lines suppressed their in vitro proliferation and their capacity to expand in T-ALL xenograft models. In conclusion, transcriptome, translatome and proteome analysis of the RPL10 R98S mutation identified RPL10 R98S driven induction of cellular serine biosynthesis. Whereas serine metabolism has been implicated in cancer via PHGDH amplification, this is the first report supporting dependence of ALL cells on the serine biosynthesis enzyme PSPH. Overall design: 3 biological replicates for each condition (RPL10 R98S, RPL10 WT)