Non-canonical role of wild-type SEC23B in the cellular stress response pathway

While germline recessive loss-of-function mutations in SEC23B in humans cause a rare form of anaemia, heterozygous change-of-function mutations result in increased predisposition to cancer. SEC23B encodes SEC23 homologue B, a component of coat protein complex II (COPII), which canonically transports proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the Golgi. Despite the association of SEC23B with anaemia and cancer, the precise pathophysiology of these phenotypic outcomes remains unknown. Recently, we reported that mutant SEC23B has non-canonical COPII-independent function, particularly within the ER stress and ribosome biogenesis pathways, and that may contribute to the pathobiology of cancer predisposition. In this study, we hypothesized that wild-type SEC23B has a baseline function within such cellular stress response pathways, with the mutant protein reflecting exaggerated effects. Here, we show that the wild-type SEC23B protein localizes to the nucleus in addition to classical distribution at the ER/Golgi interface and identify multiple putative nuclear localization and export signals regulating nuclear–cytoplasmic transport. Unexpectedly, we show that, independently of COPII, wild-type SEC23B can also localize to cell nucleoli under proteasome inhibition conditions, with distinct distribution patterns compared to mutant cells. Unbiased proteomic analyses through mass spectrometry further revealed that wild-type SEC23B interacts with a subset of nuclear proteins, in addition to central proteins in the ER stress, protein ubiquitination, and EIF2 signalling pathways. We validate the genotype-specific differential SEC23B–UBA52 (ribosomal protein RPL40) interaction. Finally, utilizing patient-derived lymphoblastoid cell lines harbouring either wild-type or mutant SEC23B, we show that SEC23B levels increase in response to ER stress, further corroborating its role as a cellular stress response sensor and/or effector. Overall, these observations suggest that SEC23B, irrespective of mutation status, has unexplored roles in the cellular stress response pathway, with implications relevant to cancer and beyond that, CDAII and normal cell biology.