Angiomotins play a key role in the regulation of YAP/TAZ oncoproteins

YAP/TAZ are fundamental transcriptional co-factors, involved in a wide range of physiological and pathological processes. Their regulation is fundamental for proper embryonic development and adult tissue homeostasis and has been recognized as largely affected by the Hippo pathway. This is a kinase cascade that eventually leads to LATS 1/2 mediated YAP/TAZ phosphorylation and consequently to their inhibition by cytoplasmic retention. However, it is still controversial in which contexts Hippo pathway activation is sufficient for YAP/TAZ inhibition. Indeed, other molecular players have been indicated as possibly involved in the regulation of YAP/TAZ and among these, Angiomotins. These form a protein family originally discovered for its role in angiogenesis, and recently implicated in YAP/TAZ regulation, albeit with controversies around its role as co-factor or inhibitor of YAP/TAZ in different contexts and around it possible crosstalk with the Hippo pathway. In this work we thus set to decipher Angiomotins role in YAP/TAZ biology and their implication in the Hippo pathway by in vitro biochemical assays and functional in vivo assays.