OCA-T1 and OCA-T2 are coactivators of POU2F3 in the tuft cell lineage

Abstract

Tuft cells are a rare chemosensory lineage that coordinates immune and neural responses to foreign pathogens in mucosal tissues¹. Recent studies have also revealed tuft-cell-like human tumours^2,3, particularly as a variant of small-cell lung cancer. Both normal and neoplastic tuft cells share a genetic requirement for the transcription factor POU2F3 (refs. ^2,4), although the transcriptional mechanisms that generate this cell type are poorly understood. Here we show that binding of POU2F3 to the uncharacterized proteins C11orf53 and COLCA2 (renamed here OCA-T1/POU2AF2 and OCA-T2/POU2AF3, respectively) is critical in the tuft cell lineage. OCA-T1 and OCA-T2 are paralogues of the B-cell-specific coactivator OCA-B; all three proteins are encoded in a gene cluster and contain a conserved peptide that binds to class II POU transcription factors and a DNA octamer motif in a bivalent manner. We demonstrate that binding between POU2F3 and OCA-T1 or OCA-T2 is essential in tuft-cell-like small-cell lung cancer. Moreover, we generated OCA-T1-deficient mice, which are viable but lack tuft cells in several mucosal tissues. These findings reveal that the POU2F3-OCA-T complex is the master regulator of tuft cell identity and a molecular vulnerability of tuft-cell-like small-cell lung cancer.