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 (AKTP) are enriched in metastatic lesions when heterozygous Trp53 mutant cells (AKTP) are transplanted. We show that Trp53 LOH is required for dormant cell survival and clonal expansion of cancer cells. Moreover, AKTP cells show an increased in vivo tumor-initiating ability compared with AKTP and AKTP cells. RNAseq analyses reveal that inflammatory and growth factor/MAPK pathways are specifically activated in AKTP cells, while the stem cell signature is upregulated in both AKTP and AKTP cells. These results indicate that TP53/Trp53 LOH promotes TP53/Trp53 GOF mutation-driven metastasis through the activation of distinct pathway combination.