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Translational control by Musashi

Regulation of translation - like transcription - appears to play a major role during development. The difficulty of analysing the behaviour of RNA in vivo has been an obstacle to studies of translational control mechanisms. Powerful genetic approaches, however, are now beginning to shed light on such mechanisms. In a Commentary on p. 1355, Hideyuki and co-workers review work showing that Musashi, an evolutionarily conserved RNA-binding protein, is a translational regulator that controls neural cell fate. Musashi is required for asymmetric division of the Drosophila sensory organ precursor (SOP) cell to form neuronal and non-neuronal progeny: the protein inhibits translation of Tramtrack69, a transcription factor that specifies non-neuronal identity. The mammalian homologue, Musashi 1, is selectively expressed in neural progenitor cells. Musashi 1 appears to maintain stem cells in an undifferentiated state by repressing translation of the Notch antagonist m-Numb and thereby promoting Notch signalling. This could be important during tumorigenesis, since Musashi 1 levels correlate with the malignancy and proliferative activity of tumours originating from immature brain cells.

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Musashi: a translational regulator of cell fate

Hideyuki Okano, Takao Imai, and Masataka Okabe
JCS 2002 115: 1355-1359. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JCS Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?