The scaffold protein PRR14L links the PP2A-TACC3 axis to mitotic fidelity and sensitivity to MPS1 inhibition

Aneuploidy is a hallmark of cancer and is a potential vulnerability that can be selectively targeted. To systematically identify genes that affect the incidence and fitness of aneuploid cells, we conducted a genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screen using NMS-P715, an inhibitor of the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) kinase MPS1/TTK. In this study, we identified a number of genes known to regulate aneuploidy and mitosis, and subsequently focused on PRR14L, a ubiquitously expressed gene previously implicated in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). Proximity labeling of PRR14L using TurboID revealed several cell division proteins, including the PP2A-B56 phosphatase complex and the spindle assembly factor TACC3, as PRR14L-interacting proteins. Loss of PRR14L prolongs SAC-dependent mitotic arrest in response to microtubule depolymerization but, paradoxically, leads to catastrophic mitotic errors upon SAC abrogation by MPS1 inhibitors. A model derived from our findings provides a rationale for exploiting MPS1 inhibition as a potential vulnerability in cancers containing either PRR14L loss of function mutations or FGFR-TACC3 fusions.