Unexpected mechanism underlying mislocalization of thrombocytopenia-associated ETV6 point mutation

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT ETV6 is a transcriptional repressor involved inhematopoietic stem cell maintenance and terminal differentiation of megakaryocytes. ETV6 conditional knockout mice demonstrate a marked decrease in peripheral platelet counts and a compensatory increase in immature megakaryocytes. In concordance with these findings, in recent years, a number of germline mutations in ETV6 that result in mislocalization of the protein from the nucleus to the cytoplasm have been associated with inherited thrombocytopenia. Carriers of these mutations are also at an increased risk of hematologic malignancies as ~30% have gone on to develop myelodysplastic syndrome or leukemia. Most of these germline mutations are found in the DNA-binding domain (DBD) of ETV6. Functional studies of these DBD mutations demonstrate a loss of DNA-binding capacity in vitro and a loss of transcriptional repression in cells. However, one mutation, the Pro214Leu missense mutation identified in 5 families thus far, occurs in the long intrinsically disordered central domain of ETV6. It too demonstrates a loss of transcriptional repression in vitro, but the mechanism explaining this loss has not yet been established. Preliminary data I have gathered demonstrates that this Pro214Leu missense mutation creates a de novo nuclear export signal (NES) leading to exportin 1 (XPO1) mediated nuclear export. This constitutes the first described instance of a point mutation creating a de novo NES. We intend to develop cellular and animal model systems to probe the effects of this unexpected disease mechanism on thrombopoiesis. We are developing a homologous ETV6 P214L transgenic mouse line will validate its suitability as an animal model of ETV6-related thrombocytopenia. This will allow us to use genetic and chemical tools to study the effects of ETV6 P214L nuclear relocalization on megakaryocyte and platelet development. Lastly, a preliminary bioinformatics search utilizing ClinVar, a publicly available database of genetic variation, and an NES prediction server has yielded additional candidate mutations that may also create de novo NESs. We intend to show that missense mutation dependent nuclear export is a general mechanism of disease, and characterization of candidate NESs may yield novel biomarkers of disease.