The ability of cancer cells to adopt various migration modes (the plasticity of cancer cell invasiveness) is a substantive obstacle in the treatment of metastasis, yet still an incompletely understood process. We performed a comparison of publicly available transcriptomic datasets from various cell types undergoing a switch between the mesenchymal and amoeboid migration modes. Strikingly, lncRNA MALAT1 (metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1) was one of three genes that were found upregulated in all amoeboid cells analyzed. Accordingly, downregulation of MALAT1 in predominantly amoeboid cell lines A375m2 and A2058 resulted in decrease of active RhoA (Ras homolog family member A) and was accompanied by the amoeboid-mesenchymal transition in A375m2 cells. Moreover, MALAT1 downregulation in amoeboid cells led to increased cell proliferation. Our work is the first to address the role of MALAT1 in MAT/AMT (mesenchymal to amoeboid transition/amoeboid to mesenchymal transition) and suggests that increased MALAT1 expression is a common feature of amoeboid cells.

Biotechnology and Biomedicine Centre of the Academy of Sciences and Charles University Průmyslová 595 25242 Vestec u Prahy Czech Republic

Department of Cell Biology Charles University Viničná 7 12843 Prague Czech Republic

Department of Thoracic Surgery Division of Cancer Research Medical Center University of Freiburg Faculty of Medicine University of Freiburg German Cancer Consortium Partner Site Freiburg Breisacher Str 115 79106 Freiburg Germany

Division of RNA Biology and Cancer German Cancer Research Center Im Neuenheimer Feld 280 69120 Heidelberg Germany

Medical Faculty Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg Kurt Mothes Str 3a 06120 Halle Germany

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