Loss of wild-type p53 promotes mutant p53-driven metastasis through acquisition of survival and tumor-initiating properties.

Missense-type mutant p53 plays a tumor-promoting role through gain-of-function (GOF) mechanism. In addition, the loss of wild-type TP53 through loss of heterozygosity (LOH) is widely found in cancer cells. However, malignant progression induced by cooperation of TP53 GOF mutation and LOH remains poorly understood. Here, we show that mouse intestinal tumors carrying Trp53 GOF mutation with LOH (AKTPM/LOH) are enriched in metastatic lesions when heterozygous Trp53 mutant cells (AKTP+/M) are transplanted. We show that Trp53 LOH is required for dormant cell survival and clonal expansion of cancer cells. Moreover, AKTPM/LOH cells show an increased in vivo tumor-initiating ability compared with AKTPNull and AKTP+/M cells. RNAseq analyses reveal that inflammatory and growth factor/MAPK pathways are specifically activated in AKTPM/LOH cells, while the stem cell signature is upregulated in both AKTPM/LOH and AKTPNull cells. These results indicate that TP53/Trp53 LOH promotes TP53/Trp53 GOF mutation-driven metastasis through the activation of distinct pathway combination. Both gain-of-function of mutant p53 (GOF) and loss of wild-type p53 (LOH) are independently associated with cancer. Here, the authors show that LOH promotes GOF tumourigenesis by increasing tumor-initiating ability and metastasis.