Identification of STK25 as a direct activator of LATS signaling

Abstract

The Hippo pathway maintains tissue homeostasis by negatively regulating the oncogenic transcriptional co-activators YAP and TAZ. Though functional inactivation of the Hippo pathway is common in tumors, mutations in core pathway components are rare. Thus, understanding how tumor cells inactivate Hippo signaling remains a key unresolved question. Here, we identify the kinase STK25 as a novel activator of Hippo signaling. We demonstrate that loss of STK25 promotes YAP/TAZ activation and enhanced cellular proliferation, even under normally growth-suppressive conditions. We reveal that STK25 activates LATS via a previously unobserved mechanism, in which STK25 directly phosphorylates the LATS activation loop. This represents a new paradigm in Hippo activation and distinguishes STK25 from all other identified kinase activators of LATS. STK25 is significantly focally deleted across a wide spectrum of human cancers, suggesting STK25 loss may represent a common mechanism by which tumor cells functionally impair the Hippo tumor suppressor pathway.