Functions of mir-34 microRNAs in the p53 tumor suppressor pathway

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): p53, the most frequently mutated tumor suppressor, is regarded as the guardian of the genome. Intensive studies over the past three decades have placed p53 in the center of a complex molecular network regulating diverse physiological responses to cancer- related stress signals. In previous studies, the components of the p53 network solely consist of protein coding genes, including those acting upstream to regulate p53 activity, those functioning downstream to mediate p53 effects, and those forming a regulatory feedback loop regulating the dynamics of the p53 activity. Recent studies from our group and others have identified a family microRNAs (miRNAs), mir-34a, b and c, as bona fide transcriptional targets of p53. These findings, for the first time, revealed the interplay between proteins and non-coding RNAs in this most important tumor suppressor pathway. miRNAs are a novel class of small, regulatory non-coding RNAs that mediate post-transcriptional gene silencing of a large number of target mRNAs. The ectopic expression of mir-34 miRNAs mimics the biological effects of p53 in growth arrest and apoptosis, possibly through their ability to dampen the expression of pro-proliferation and pro-survival genes. Given these preliminary findings, we hypothesize that the endogenous mir-34 miRNAs are key effectors to mediate many of the p53 downstream effects, and that the functions of mir-34 have profound impacts on tumorigenesis and tumor maintenance. Using cell culture studies and mouse genetic studies, we propose to determine whether mir-34 miRNAs mediate p53 induced growth arrest and apoptosis, and to what extent mir-34 miRNAs contribute to p53 mediated tumor suppression and tumor regression.