Comprehensively Testing the Function of Missense Variation in the STK11 Tumour Suppressor
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The tumor suppressor gene STK11 encoding Serine/Threonine Kinase 11 (STK11) is associated with Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome (PJS), a heritable gastrointestinal disease that increases lifetime cancer risk, and with somatic variation that contributes to ∼30% of lung and 20% of cervical cancers. Although identifying pathogenic variants is clinically actionable, over 94% of STK11 missense variants that have been observed clinically lack a definitive classification. We therefore measured the impact of STK11 variants at scale in a mammalian cell-based assay, scoring 6,026 (73% of all possible) amino acid substitutions across the full-length gene. Functional scores—which were consistent with biochemical properties, smaller-scale assays, and pathogenicity annotations—identified a subset of PJS patients with germline STK11 variants diagnosed later in life, as well as somatic STK11 variants found in cancer patients that had comparable overall survival estimates to wild-type STK11 . Our scores provided new evidence for 350 annotated VUS STK11 missense variants and ∼80% of missense variants that have not yet been reported clinically, but we might expect to observe in the future. Thus, our effect map provides a proactive resource for gaining sequence-structure-function insights and evidence for actionable interpretation of clinical missense variants.
