Open AccessArticle
Functional and Structural Characterization of FAU Gene/Protein from Marine Sponge Suberites domuncula
by
Dragutin Perina 1,†, Marina Korolija 2,†, Marijana Popović Hadžija 3, Ivana Grbeša 4, Robert Belužić 3, Mirna Imešek 1, Christine Morrow 5, Melanija Posavec Marjanović 1, Tatjana Bakran-Petricioli 6, Andreja Mikoč 1,* and Helena Ćetković 1,*
1
Division of Molecular Biology, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb 10000, Croatia
2
Forensic Science Centre "Ivan Vučetić", Zagreb 10000, Croatia
3
Division of Molecular Medicine, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb 10000, Croatia
4
The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramaty-Gan 5290002, Israel
5
Queen's University Belfast, Marine Laboratory, Portaferry BT22 1PF, Northern Ireland, UK
6
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb 10000, Croatia
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 6420
Abstract
Finkel-Biskis-Reilly murine sarcoma virus (FBR-MuSV) ubiquitously expressed (
FAU) gene is down-regulated in human prostate, breast and ovarian cancers. Moreover, its dysregulation is associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer. Sponges (Porifera) are animals without tissues which branched off first from the
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Finkel-Biskis-Reilly murine sarcoma virus (FBR-MuSV) ubiquitously expressed (
FAU) gene is down-regulated in human prostate, breast and ovarian cancers. Moreover, its dysregulation is associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer. Sponges (Porifera) are animals without tissues which branched off first from the common ancestor of all metazoans. A large majority of genes implicated in human cancers have their homologues in the sponge genome. Our study suggests that
FAU gene from the sponge
Suberites domuncula reflects characteristics of the
FAU gene from the metazoan ancestor, which have changed only slightly during the course of animal evolution. We found pro-apoptotic activity of sponge FAU protein. The same as its human homologue, sponge FAU increases apoptosis in human HEK293T cells. This indicates that the biological functions of FAU, usually associated with “higher” metazoans, particularly in cancer etiology, possess a biochemical background established early in metazoan evolution. The ancestor of all animals possibly possessed FAU protein with the structure and function similar to evolutionarily more recent versions of the protein, even before the appearance of true tissues and the origin of tumors and metastasis. It provides an opportunity to use pre-bilaterian animals as a simpler model for studying complex interactions in human cancerogenesis.
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