Failure of human rhombic lip differentiation underlies medulloblastoma formation

Liam D. Hendrikse, Parthiv Haldipur, Olivier Saulnier, Jake Millman, Alexandria H. Sjoboen, Anders W. Erickson, Winnie Ong, Victor Gordon, Ludivine Coudiere-Morrison, Audrey L. Mercier, Mohammad Shokouhian, Raul A. Suarez, Michelle Ly, Stephanie Borlase, David S. Scott, Maria C. Vladoiu, Hamza Farooq, Olga Sirbu, Takuma Nakashima, Shohei NambuYusuke Funakoshi, Alec Bahcheli, J. Javier Diaz-Mejia, Joseph Golser, Kathleen Bach, Tram Phuong-Bao, Patryk Skowron, Evan Y. Wang, Sachin A. Kumar, Polina Balin, Abhirami Visvanathan, John J. Y. Lee, Ramy Ayoub, Xin Chen, Xiaodi Chen, Karen L. Mungall, Betty Luu, Pierre Berube, Yu C. Wang, Stefan M. Pfister, Seung-Ki Kim, Olivier Delattre, Franck Bourdeaut, Francois Doz, Julien Masliah-Planchon, Wieslawa A. Grajkowska, James Loukides, Peter Dirks, Michelle Fevre-Montange, Anne Jouvet, Pim J. French, Johan M. Kros, Karel Zitterbart, Swneke D. Bailey, Charles G. Eberhart, Amulya A. N. Rao, Caterina Giannini, James M. Olson, Miklos Garami, Peter Hauser, Joanna J. Phillips, Young S. Ra, Carmen de Torres, Jaume Mora, Kay K. W. Li, Ho-Keung Ng, Wai S. Poon, Ian F. Pollack, Enrique Lopez-Aguilar, G. Yancey Gillespie, Timothy E. Van Meter, Tomoko Shofuda, Rajeev Vibhakar, Reid C. Thompson, Michael K. Cooper, Joshua B. Rubin, Toshihiro Kumabe, Shin Jung, Boleslaw Lach, Achille Lolascon, Veronica Ferrucci, Pasqualino de Antonellis, Massimo Zollo, Giuseppe Cinalli, Shenandoah Robinson, Duncan S. Stearns, Erwin G. Van Meir, Paola Porrati, Gaetano Finocchiaro, Maura Massimino, Carlos G. Carlotti, Claudia C. Faria, Martine F. Roussel, Frederick Boop, Jennifer A. Chan, Kimberly A. Aldinger, Ferechte Razavi, Evelina Silvestri, Roger E. McLendon, Eric M. Thompson, Marc Ansari, Maria L. Garre, Fernando Chico, Pilar Eguia, Mario Perezpena, A. Sorana Morrissy, Florence M. G. Cavalli, Xiaochong Wu, Craig Daniels, Jeremy N. Rich, Steven J. M. Jones, Richard A. Moore, Marco A. Marra, Xi Huang, Juri Reimand, Poul H. Sorensen, Robert J. Wechsler-Reya, William A. Weiss, Trevor J. Pugh, Livia Garzia, Claudia L. Kleinman, Lincoln D. Stein, Nada Jabado, David Malkin, Olivier Ayrault, Jeffrey A. Golden, David W. Ellison, Brad Doble, Vijay Ramaswamy, Tamra E. Werbowetski-Ogilvie, Hiromichi Suzuki, Kathleen J. Millen, Michael D. Taylor*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

64 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Medulloblastoma (MB) comprises a group of heterogeneous paediatric embryonal neoplasms of the hindbrain with strong links to early development of the hindbrain 1–4. Mutations that activate Sonic hedgehog signalling lead to Sonic hedgehog MB in the upper rhombic lip (RL) granule cell lineage 5–8. By contrast, mutations that activate WNT signalling lead to WNT MB in the lower RL 9,10. However, little is known about the more commonly occurring group 4 (G4) MB, which is thought to arise in the unipolar brush cell lineage 3,4. Here we demonstrate that somatic mutations that cause G4 MB converge on the core binding factor alpha (CBFA) complex and mutually exclusive alterations that affect CBFA2T2, CBFA2T3, PRDM6, UTX and OTX2. CBFA2T2 is expressed early in the progenitor cells of the cerebellar RL subventricular zone in Homo sapiens, and G4 MB transcriptionally resembles these progenitors but are stalled in developmental time. Knockdown of OTX2 in model systems relieves this differentiation blockade, which allows MB cells to spontaneously proceed along normal developmental differentiation trajectories. The specific nature of the split human RL, which is destined to generate most of the neurons in the human brain, and its high level of susceptible EOMES +KI67 + unipolar brush cell progenitor cells probably predisposes our species to the development of G4 MB.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1021-1028
Number of pages8
JournalNature
Volume609
Issue number7929
Early online date21 Sept 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Sept 2022

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