Ej. Smith et al., DISTINCT MECHANISMS CONTROL THE ACCUMULATION OF THE RB-RELATED P107 AND P130 PROTEINS DURING CELL-GROWTH, Cell growth & differentiation, 9(4), 1998, pp. 297-303
A variety of studies have demonstrated the critical role of the Rb/E2F
pathway in the control of cell growth and have highlighted a complexi
ty in the accumulation of both the E2F family proteins and the Rb fami
ly of proteins. Whereas the Rb protein is found in both growing and qu
iescent cells, the accumulation of p130 and p107 is tightly regulated
with respect to the growth state of the cell. The p130 protein is foun
d in quiescent cells but not in growing cells, whereas the inverse is
true for the p107 protein, Control of p130 accumulation is posttranscr
iptional, because p130 RNA is relatively constant in growing and quies
cent cells. The disappearance of the p130 protein after stimulation of
cell growth coincides with cyclin-dependent kinase-mediated phosphory
lation and is blocked by inhibitors of the 26S proteasome. In contrast
, the cell growth-dependent regulation of p107 expression reflects the
transcriptional regulation of the p107 gene. Similar to several other
growth-regulated genes, the control of p107 expression is largely the
result of E2F-dependent repression in quiescent cells. These experime
nts thus demonstrate a control of Rb family member expression mediated
through distinct mechanisms of both transcriptional and posttranslati
onal control and also suggest an intimate relationship in which p130 c
ontrols the expression of p107.