Centrosomes are small structures in cells with many essential functions, including roles in cell signaling and in organizing a cell's cytoskeleton. Centrosome dysfunction contributes to diseases like cancer and congenital developmental disorders—for which understanding what regulates centrosome function is key. In a new study, Yale researchers have uncovered two proteins that play a role in this regulation, shedding light on centrosome-related disorders and revealing potential targets for treatment.
The findings were reported in the journal Current Biology . The first protein that caught the researchers' attention is one known as PPP2R3C, first identified during a genome-wide screen, in which they mutated every gene in the genome to find those that affected the function of structures closely tied to centrosomes. Then researchers found that mutations in the PPP2R3C gene are linked to developmental syndromes.
(Names of genes are written in italics.) "We were intrigued by this connection to disease, and then by mining available data we started to develop an idea of what PPP2R3C's function might be in cells," said David Breslow, senior author of the study and an assistant professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "That got us excited about this protein.
" Breslow and his colleagues observed that PPP2R3C gathered at centrosomes of typical, healthy cells, supporting the idea that it played a role in centrosome function. But.