Burchett, J. B. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2025

MYC and Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) Independently Predict Circadian Rhythm Disruption in Lung Adenocarcinoma

The molecular circadian clock is known to be disrupted in lung adenocarcinoma, and its disruption is pro-tumorigenic in mouse models of this disease. However, the determinants of disruption of the molecular clock in human cancer are not clear. We hypothesized that derangement in expression of specific circadian clock genes or elevated MYC expression could correlate with circadian disruption in human tumors, and used Clock Correlation Distance (CCD) to compare clock order and strength in tumors based on the expression of these genes. While the expression of individual circadian genes did not consistently correlate with disruption, tumors with the highest expression of MYC or high MYC pathway activation had significantly disrupted rhythms compared to those with lower MYC. Unexpectedly, a subset of tumors with very low levels of MYC, below that found in normal lung, also showed disruption of circadian rhythms, prompting us to explore novel determinants of disruption in these tumors. We found that expression of programs associated with epithelial to mesenchymal Transition (EMT) and TGF-{beta} signaling were enriched in tumors with the lowest MYC expression, and that, surprisingly, those tumors with a mesenchymal expression pattern had more ordered (stronger) rhythms. To directly test this correlation between cell state and rhythms, we exposed lung adenocarcinoma cells to TGF-{beta} to induce EMT. TGF-{beta} induced a quasi-mesenchymal phenotype and caused a significant increase in the amplitude of oscillations in these cells. Together, our data show that MYC expression, pathway activation, and a mesenchymal cell state are both independent determinants of circadian status in lung adenocarcinoma.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2023

MYC disrupts transcriptional and metabolic circadian oscillations in cancer and promotes enhanced biosynthesis

The molecular circadian clock, which controls rhythmic 24-hour oscillation of genes, proteins, and metabolites in healthy tissues, is disrupted across many human cancers. Deregulated expression of the MYC oncoprotein has been shown to alter expression of molecular clock genes, leading to a disruption of molecular clock oscillation across cancer types. It remains unclear what benefit cancer cells gain from suppressing clock oscillation, and how this loss of molecular clock oscillation impacts global gene expression and metabolism in cancer. We hypothesized that MYC or its paralog N-MYC (collectively termed MYC herein) suppress oscillation of gene expression and metabolism to upregulate pathways involved in biosynthesis in a static, non-oscillatory fashion. To test this, cells from distinct cancer types with inducible MYC were examined, using time-series RNA-sequencing and metabolomics, to determine the extent to which MYC activation disrupts global oscillation of genes, gene expression pathways, and metabolites. We focused our analyses on genes, pathways, and metabolites that changed in common across multiple cancer cell line models. We report here that MYC disrupted over 85% of oscillating genes, while instead promoting enhanced ribosomal and mitochondrial biogenesis and suppressed cell attachment pathways. Notably, when MYC is activated, biosynthetic programs that were formerly circadian flipped to being upregulated in an oscillation-free manner. Further, activation of MYC ablates the oscillation of nutrient transporter proteins while greatly upregulating transporter expression, cell surface localization, and intracellular amino acid pools. Finally, we report that MYC disrupts metabolite oscillations and the temporal segregation of amino acid metabolism from nucleotide metabolism. Our results demonstrate that MYC disruption of the molecular circadian clock releases metabolic and biosynthetic processes from circadian control, which may provide a distinct advantage to cancer cells.

cancer biology↗