Synthetic lethal interaction between the tumour suppressor STAG2 and its paralog STAG1

Abstract Cohesin is a multi-protein complex that tethers sister chromatids during mitosis and mediates DNA repair, genome compartmentalisation and regulation of gene expression. Cohesin subunits frequently acquire cancer loss-of-function alterations and act as tumour suppressors in several tumour types. This has led to increased interest in cohesin as potential target in anti-cancer therapy. Here we show that the loss-of-function of STAG2, a core component of cohesin and an emerging tumour suppressor, leads to synthetic dependency of mutated cancer cells on