FAF1 phosphorylation by AKT accumulates TGF-β type II receptor and drives breast cancer metastasis

TGF-β is pro-metastatic for the late-stage breast cancer cells. Despite recent progress, the regulation of TGF-β type II receptor remains uncertain. Here we report that FAF1 destabilizes TβRII on the cell surface by recruiting the VCP/E3 ligase complex, thereby limiting excessive TGF-β response. Importantly, activated AKT directly phosphorylates FAF1 at Ser 582, which disrupts the FAF1–VCP complex and reduces FAF1 at the plasma membrane. The latter results in an increase in TβRII at the cell surface that promotes both TGF-β-induced SMAD and non-SMAD signalling. We uncover a metastasis suppressing role for FAF1 through analyses of FAF1-knockout animals, various in vitro and in vivo models of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and metastasis, an MMTV-PyMT transgenic mouse model of mammary tumour progression and clinical breast cancer samples. These findings describe a previously uncharacterized mechanism by which TβRII is tightly controlled. Together, we reveal how SMAD and AKT pathways interact to confer pro-oncogenic responses to TGF-β. Aberrant activation of TGF-β signalling promotes cancer metastasis but the initial steps of this activation are unclear. Here Xie et al . show that FAF1 regulates the surface levels of TGF-β type II receptor thus influencing the persistence of the signalling and breast cancer metastasis.