The miRNA bantam regulates growth and tumorigenesis by repressing the cell cycle regulator tribbles

• Published in: Life science alliance 2019-08, Vol.2 (4), p.e201900381
• Main Authors: Gerlach, Stephan U, Sander, Moritz, Song, Shilin, Herranz, Héctor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Apoptosis; Carcinogenesis - genetics; Cell Cycle Proteins - genetics; Cell Proliferation; Down-Regulation; Drosophila melanogaster - genetics; Drosophila melanogaster - growth & development; Drosophila Proteins - genetics; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Imaginal Discs - growth & development; MicroRNAs - genetics; Organ Size; Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases - genetics; Signal Transduction; Wings, Animal - growth & development
• ISSN: 2575-1077; 2575-1077
• DOI: 10.26508/lsa.201900381

One of the fundamental issues in biology is understanding how organ size is controlled. Tissue growth has to be carefully regulated to generate well-functioning organs, and defects in growth control can result in tumor formation. The Hippo signaling pathway is a universal growth regulator and has been implicated in cancer. In , the Hippo pathway acts through the miRNA to regulate cell proliferation and apoptosis. Even though the targets regulating apoptosis have been determined, the target genes controlling proliferation have not been identified thus far. In this study, we identify the gene as a direct target gene. Tribbles limits cell proliferation by suppressing G2/M transition. We show that regulation by is central in controlling tissue growth and tumorigenesis. We expand our study to other cell cycle regulators and show that deregulated G2/M transition can collaborate with oncogene activation driving tumor formation.