Mechanistic analysis of a DNA damage-induced, PTEN-dependent size checkpoint in human cells.

Following DNA damage, human cells undergo arrests in the G(1) and G(2) phases of the cell cycle and a simultaneous arrest in cell size. We previously demonstrated that the cell size arrest can be uncoupled from the cell cycle arrest by mutational inactivation of the PTEN tumor suppressor gene. Here we show that the cell size checkpoint is inducible by DNA-damaging chemotherapeutic agents as well as by ionizing radiation and is effectively regulated by PTEN but not by its oncogenic counterpart, PIK3CA. Mutational analysis of PTEN and pharmacological inhibition of Akt revealed that modulation of Akt phosphorylation is unnecessary for cell size checkpoint control. To discover putative PTEN regulators and/or effectors involved in size checkpoint control, we employed a novel endogenous epitope tagging (EET) approach, which revealed that endogenous PTEN interacts at the membrane with an actin-remodeling complex that includes actin, gelsolin, and EPLIN. Pharmacological inhibition of actin remodeling in PTEN(+/+) cells recapitulated the lack of size checkpoint control seen in PTEN(-/-) cells. Taken together, these results provide further support for the existence of a DNA damage-inducible size checkpoint that is regulated by a major tumor suppressor, and they provide a novel Akt-independent mechanism by which PTEN controls cell size.