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Updated: Feb 12, 2026

Induction and Analysis of Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition
Published on: August 27, 2013
C-terminal domain small phosphatase-like 2 promotes epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition via Snail dephosphorylation
Yulan Zhao1, Jinquan Liu1, Fenfang Chen1
1Life Sciences Institute, and Innovation Center for Cell Signaling Network, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a cellular reprogramming process converting epithelial cells into mesenchymal cell morphology. Snail is a critical regulator of EMT by both suppressing epithelial gene expression and promoting mesenchymal gene expression. Expression and activity of Snail are tightly controlled at transcriptional and post-translational levels. It has previously been reported that Snail undergoes phosphorylation and ubiquitin-dependent proteasome degradation. Here, we report nuclear phosphatase SCP4/CTDSPL2 acts as a novel Snail phosphatase. SCP4 physically interacts with and directly dephosphorylates Snail. SCP4-mediated dephosphorylation of Snail suppresses the ubiquitin-dependent proteasome degradation of Snail and consequently enhances TGFβ-induced EMT. The knockdown of SCP4 in MCF10A mammary epithelial cells leads to attenuated cell migration. Collectively, our finding demonstrates that SCP4 plays a critical role in EMT through Snail dephosphorylation and stabilization.
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