Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về sinh học được đăng trên tạp chí sinh học Journal of Biology đề tài: Scribble at the crossroads. | Journal of Biology Minireview Scribble at the crossroads Sandrine Etienne-Manneville Address Institut Pasteur Cell Polarity and Migration Group and CNRS URA 2582 25 rue du Dr Roux 75724 Paris cedex 15 France. Email Abstract Although proteins involved in determining apical-basal cell polarity have been directly linked to tumorigenesis their precise roles in this process remain unclear. A recent report in BMC Biology clarifies the signaling pathways that control cell polarity proliferation and apoptosis downstream of the tumor suppressor and apical-basal polarity determinant Scribble. See research article http 1741-7007 7 62. As the signaling networks that control cell polarity are deciphered it is clear that some of the main regulators of epithelial apical-basal polarity are also involved in tumorigenesis. This is hardly surprising. As loss of polarity and tissue architecture is a common feature of carcinomas we might expect that regulation of cell polarity would be altered at some stage of tumor development. But whether loss of cell polarity on its own is sufficient for tumor formation is debatable. A more general question is whether polarity proteins contribute to tumorigenesis directly through disruption of their polarizing functions or whether their involvement in tumorigenesis is due to their roles in the signaling pathways that independently control cell division cell apoptosis and cell polarity In Drosophila the genes scribble Scrib in mammals discs large Dlg and lethal giant larvae Lgl act together to regulate epithelial cell apico-basal polarity and also act as tumor suppressor genes 1 . Scribble encodes a multidomain scaffold protein of the LAP LRR and PDZ family and is therefore likely to be involved in several distinct signaling pathways. A single mutation in scribble can induce loss of apical-basal polarity and massive hyperproliferation of the imaginal discs demonstrating a role for Scribble
