The potential role of Atlastin 2 in breast cancer progression

Title: The potential role of Atlastin 2 in breast cancer progression

Speaker: Dr. Inga Reynisdóttir, Clinical scientist, Pathology Department, Landspitali

Abstract: The disruption of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) homeostasis occurs in many diseases.  The proteins of the Atlastin gene family are located within the ER membrane where they fuse the ER membrane tubules into a branched ER network.  Atlastin 1 is mostly expressed in the brain whereas Atlastins 2 and 3 are expressed in all tissues in the body.  Atlastin 2 (ATL2) expresses several transcripts but only two transcripts, ATL2-1 and ATL2-2, encode full-length proteins that include all domains.  The amino acid sequence of ATL2-1 and ATL2-2 proteins are identical except their C-termini. The C-terminus of ATL2-1 inhibits its fusogenic activity, but the C-terminus of ATL2-2 is constitutively active.  Only a handful of studies have associated ATL2 with cancer, including breast and lung cancer.  Interestingly, ATL2 is expressed in murine breast tissue where it is necessary for lipid droplet formation.  We thought that this was intriguing and thus we analyzed whether ATL2 has a role in breast cancer.  In the first part of the study, the subject of the talk, the focus was on analyzing expression of ATL2 in breast tumors and its association with pathological characteristics and survival.  The second part of the study will focus on analysis in cell models.