ERH proteins: connecting RNA processing to tumorigenesis?

Marc Graille (1) , Mathieu Rougemaille (2, 3)

1 BIOC - Laboratoire de Biologie Structurale de la Cellule
2 I2BC - Institut de Biologie Intégrative de la Cellule
3 GEXDIF - Protéines de liaison à l’ARN dans l’expression des gènes et la différenciation cellulaire

With the development of -omics approaches, the scientific community is now submerged by a wealth of information that can be used to analyze various parameters: the degree of protein sequence conservation, protein 3D structures as well as RNA and protein expression levels in various benign and tumor tissues, during organism development or upon exposure to chemicals such as endocrine disrupters. However, if such information can be used to identify genes with potentially important biological function, additional studies are needed to deeply characterize their cellular function in model organisms. Here, we discuss the case of such a gene: ERH, encoding a highly conserved homodimeric protein found in unicellular eukaryotes, plants and metazoan, of yet unknown biological function, which might be linked to mRNA metabolism and that is emerging as important for cell migration and metastasis.

Mots clés: Sequence conservation; Homodimer; Unknown function; Cancer; mRNA processing

Domaines: Biologie cellulaire; Biologie moléculaire

Marc Graille, Mathieu Rougemaille. ERH proteins: connecting RNA processing to tumorigenesis?. Current Genetics, 2020, 66 (4), pp.689-692. ⟨10.1007/s00294-020-01065-z⟩. ⟨hal-02503603⟩