RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Hardwired synthetic lethality within the cohesin complex in human cancer cells JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 125708 DO 10.1101/125708 A1 Petra van der Lelij A1 Simone Lieb A1 Julian Jude A1 Gordana Wutz A1 Catarina P. Santos A1 Katrina Falkenberg A1 Andreas Schlattl A1 Jozef Ban A1 Raphaela Schwentner A1 Heinrich Kovar A1 Francisco X. Real A1 Todd Waldman A1 Mark A. Pearson A1 Norbert Kraut A1 Jan-Michael Peters A1 Johannes Zuber A1 Mark Petronczki YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/08/125708.abstract AB Recent genome analyses have identified recurrent mutations in the cohesin complex in a wide range of human cancers. Here we demonstrate that the most frequently mutated subunit of the cohesin complex, STAG2, displays a strong synthetic lethal interaction with its paralog STAG1. Mechanistically, STAG1 loss abrogates sister chromatid cohesion in STAG2 mutated but not in wild-type cells leading to mitotic catastrophe, defective cell division and apoptosis. STAG1 inactivation inhibits the proliferation of STAG2 mutated but not wild-type bladder cancer and Ewing sarcoma cell lines. Restoration of STAG2 expression in a mutated bladder cancer model alleviates the dependency on STAG1. Thus, STAG1 and STAG2 act redundantly to support sister chromatid cohesion and cell survival. STAG1 represents a hardwired, context independent vulnerability of cancer cells carrying mutations in the major emerging tumor suppressor STAG2. Exploiting synthetic lethal interactions to target recurrent cohesin mutations in cancer, e.g. by inhibiting STAG1, holds the promise for the development of selective therapeutics.