Mechanisms of polarity protein expression control.
Polarity is a universal feature of cells during division and often at other stages of the cell cycle or after post-mitotic differentiation. A conserved machinery, present in all animals, initiates and maintains polarity. Multi-cellular animals organize themselves with respect to the axes of symmetry of the organism through the process of planar cell polarity, but many tissues also express a cell-intrinsic form of polarity, for instance to segregate the apical and basolateral membranes of epithelial cells. Although the genes and proteins involved in apical-basal polarity have been known for many years, the regulation of their expression remains ill-defined. Maintenance of the correct expression levels is essential for normal cell lineage allocation, tissue morphogenesis and cell survival. Here we summarize what is known about the transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of polarity protein expression, and discuss areas that remain to be understood.
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37240, USA.
Syed Mukhtar
SM
Ahmed
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37240, USA. Electronic address: Ian.g.macara@vanderbilt.edu.
Ian G
IG
Macara
D000818:Animals; D016764:Cell Polarity / Q000235:genetics; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition / Q000235:genetics; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D059748:Proteolysis; D014780:Viruses / Q000378:metabolism
D011506:Proteins