The guardian of the genome has a dark side

• Autores: Andy Coghlan
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2980, 2014, pág. 11
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • A protein renowned for protecting people against cancer has an "evil twin" that may promote tumor growth. Nicknamed the "guardian of the genome," the p53 protein detects mutated or damaged cells and triggers a process that causes them to wither and die before they can turn cancerous. Defects in the gene that makes the p53 protein have been linked to half of all common cancers. Raftaella Sordella of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and her colleagues wanted to see if that gene was "expressed," or making the p53 protein. in damaged mouse lung cells. Instead, they found a different version of the gene, making a novel protein, now dubbed p53-psi.