The BTB-zinc finger transcription factor abrupt acts as an epithelial oncogene in Drosophila melanogaster through maintaining a progenitor-like cell state.

ABSTRACT: The capacity of tumour cells to maintain continual overgrowth potential has been linked to the commandeering of normal self-renewal pathways. Using an epithelial cancer model in Drosophila melanogaster, we carried out an overexpression screen for oncogenes capable of cooperating with the loss of the epithelial apico-basal cell polarity regulator, scribbled (scrib), and identified the cell fate regulator, Abrupt, a BTB-zinc finger protein. Abrupt overexpression alone is insufficient to transform cells, but in cooperation with scrib loss of function, Abrupt promotes the formation of massive tumours in the eye/antennal disc. The steroid hormone receptor coactivator, Taiman (a homologue of SRC3/AIB1), is known to associate with Abrupt, and Taiman overexpression also drives tumour formation in

SUBMITTER: Turkel N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3715428 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature