F-box protein FBXO16 functions as a tumor suppressor by attenuating nuclear β-catenin function

Aberrant activation of β-catenin has been implicated in a variety of human diseases, including cancer. In spite of significant progress, the regulation of active Wnt/β-catenin-signaling pathways is still poorly understood. In this study, we show that F-box protein 16 (FBXO16) is a putative tumor suppressor. It is a component of the SCF (SKP1-Cullin1-F-box protein) complex, which targets the nuclear β-catenin protein to facilitate proteasomal degradation through the 26S proteasome. FBXO16 interacts physically with the C-terminal domain of β-catenin and promotes its lysine 48-linked polyubiquitination. In addition, it inhibits epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) by attenuating the level of β-catenin. Therefore, depletion of FBXO16 leads to increased levels of β-catenin, which then promotes cell invasion, tumor growth, and EMT of cancer cells. Furthermore, FBXO16 and β-catenin share an inverse correlation of cellular expression in clinical breast cancer patient samples. In summary, we propose that FBXO16 functions as a putative tumor suppressor by forming an SCF^FBXO16 complex that targets nuclear β-catenin in a unique manner for ubiquitination and subsequent proteasomal degradation to prevent malignancy. This work suggests a novel therapeutic strategy against human cancers related to aberrant β-catenin activation. © 2019 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.