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The ups and downs of p53: understanding protein dynamics in single cells

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 9, pages 371–377 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Cells living in a complex environment must constantly detect, process and appropriately respond to changing signals. Therefore, all cellular information processing is dynamic in nature. As a consequence, understanding the process of signal transduction often requires detailed quantitative analysis of dynamic behaviours. Here, we focus on the oscillatory dynamics of the tumour suppressor protein p53 as a model for studying protein dynamics in single cells to better understand its regulation and function.

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Figure 1: Dynamics in signal transduction pathways.
Figure 2: The p53 signalling network.
Figure 3: The response of p53 to DNA double strand breaks (DSBs).
Figure 4: Phase plane trajectories of oscillators and pulse generators.
Figure 5: Model for the potential role of ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) pulses in the DNA repair process.
Figure 6: Pulsing transcription factors can give rise to multiple dynamic patterns of their target genes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the members of our laboratory for useful discussions. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant GM083303. E.B. was supported by the American Cancer Society, California Division, Pamela and Edward Taft Postdoctoral Fellowship.

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  1. Eric Batchelor, Alexander Loewer and Galit Lahav are at Harvard Medical School Systems Biology, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.,

    Eric Batchelor, Alexander Loewer & Galit Lahav

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Batchelor, E., Loewer, A. & Lahav, G. The ups and downs of p53: understanding protein dynamics in single cells. Nat Rev Cancer 9, 371–377 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc2604

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