Sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs) are a family of transcription factors that regulate lipid biosynthesis and adipogenesis by controlling the expression of several enzymes required for cholesterol, fatty acid, triacylglycerol and phospholipid synthesis. In vertebrates, SREBP activation is mainly controlled by a complex and well-characterized feedback mechanism mediated by cholesterol, a crucial bio-product of the SREBP-activated mevalonate pathway. In this work, we identified acto-myosin contractility and mechanical forces imposed by the extracellular matrix (ECM) as SREBP1 regulators. SREBP1 control by mechanical cues depends on geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate, another key bio-product of the mevalonate pathway, and impacts on stem cell fate in mouse and on fat storage in Drosophila. Mechanistically, we show that activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) by ECM stiffening and geranylgeranylated RhoA-dependent acto-myosin contraction inhibits SREBP1 activation. Our results unveil an unpredicted and evolutionary conserved role of SREBP1 in rewiring cell metabolism in response to mechanical cues.

Patients with triple-negative breast cancer display the highest rates of early relapse of all patients with breast cancer. The basal-like subtype, a subgroup of triple-negative breast cancer, exhibits high levels of constitutively active NF-κB signalling. Here we show that NF-κB activation, induced by inflammatory cytokines or by epigenetically dysregulated NIK expression, cell-autonomously upregulates JAG1 expression in non-cancer stem cells. This upregulation stimulates NOTCH signalling in cancer stem cells in trans, leading to an expansion of cancer stem cell populations. Among breast cancers, the NF-κB-dependent induction of JAG1 and the NOTCH-dependent expansion of the cancer stem cell population occur only in the basal-like subtype. Collectively, our results indicate that NF-κB has a non-cell-autonomous role in regulating cancer stem cell populations by forming intratumoural microenvironments composed of JAG1-expressing non-cancer stem cells with a basal-like subtype.