preview

Tp53 Essay

Decent Essays

TP53 is a 20kb long gene located on the small arm of chromosome 17 [18]. It is the first tumor suppressor gene to be identified and the most extensively studied [19, 20]. First described in 1979, this gene was first believed to be an oncogene, a cell growth promoter [19]. However, data form in-vivo studies performed years later provided convincing evidence supporting its tumor suppressive activity [18, 21]. The TP53 gene encodes a 53 kDa protein [18] that is involved in mediating cellular responses to various forms of stress signals [22]. Following these signals, the biological responses mediated by P53 can be attributed to its ability to act as a tetrameric transcription factor promoting the expression of genes involved in cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, DNA repair, …show more content…

Therefore, the most notable P53-induced mechanisms in mediating this response are cell cycle arrest and apoptosis [18], which activation depends on the cellular context and the extent of damage [20]. In the context of the cell cycle, P53 is shown to have a G1 and G2/M checkpoint function [23]; in fact, upon receiving a stimulus such as DNA damage, p53 induces cell cycle arrest providing time for the cell to repair the genomic damage before being released back into the proliferating pool . The best known P53 target gene product involved in this process is the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor p21 [18]. The progression through the S phase of the cell cycle is tightly controlled by CDKs [19]. P21 functions by inhibiting Cyclin-CDK complexes, therefore, hindering the cell cycle transition from G1 to S phase [23]. In addition to being implicated in the G1/S arrest of the cell cycle, it has been demonstrated that P21, alongside p53, is also essential in the G2/M phase [23,

Get Access