Convergent evolution of a genotoxic stress response in a parasite-specific p53 homolog.

ABSTRACT: P53 is a widely studied tumor suppressor that plays important roles in cell-cycle regulation, cell death, and DNA damage repair. P53 is found throughout metazoans, even in invertebrates that do not develop malignancies. The prevailing theory for why these invertebrates possess a tumor suppressor is that P53 originally evolved to protect the germline of early metazoans from genotoxic stress such as ultraviolet radiation. This theory is largely based upon functional data from only three invertebrates, omitting important groups of animals including flatworms. Previous studies in the freshwater planarian flatworm Schmidtea mediterranea suggested that flatworm P53 plays an important role in stem cell maintenance and skin production, but these studies did not directly test for any tumor s

SUBMITTER: Wendt GR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9478680 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature