In a study published today in EMBO Reports, researchers at York University present a new role for a well-known protein in the body that may explain, in part, what goes wrong in certain cancers, vascular disorders, and neurological disorders. The protein—beta-catenin—has already been implicated in the development of various cancers.
Beta-catenin is a wide-ranging and important protein for the regulation of cell function from the embryonic stage to adulthood. The researchers have found new intracellular interactions between beta-catenin and other proteins, which highlight a previously unknown role for this protein. These interactions show that beta-catenin not only plays a role in gene expression but also is involved in the control of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) translation.
The findings surprised the researchers. "Beta-catenin is known to have an expansive role in cell biology, including a role in the nucleus in gene expression and at cell membranes, but this finding points to a new, and potentially important role for this 'jack-of-all-trades' protein," says lead researcher John McDermott. "It's a novel role for beta-catenin which was previously unknown despite there being thousands of published papers about this protein in the scientific literature."
In collaboration with the Bayfield lab at York, they found evidence that beta-catenin is recruited by the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) to the cellular machinery to help regulate the translation of mRNA into protein.
The research indicates that beta-catenin, when recruited to the translation machinery, represses translation. Upon appropriate signals, it then leaves this complex to allow cellular protein production to be increased. If proper regulation doesn't happen at this step, it could contribute to problems associated with some cancers and neurological diseases.
This newly found role for beta-catenin is important as it provides a window into a process that was previously unknown and that can potentially lead to the development of novel therapeutic interventions.
"The next steps are to try to target these novel properties of beta-catenin in various disease states," McDermott says.
Image: In this set of images, the localization of beta-catenin (green, top left) and FMRP (red, top right) are shown. The cellular nucleus is stained blue (lower left). The merged image (lower, right) indicates the co-localization of the two proteins. Image courtesy of EMBO Reports.