Review

Nature Reviews Cancer 9, 773-784 (November 2009) | doi:10.1038/nrc2736

Article series: Epigenetics and genetics

Polycomb group proteins: navigators of lineage pathways led astray in cancer

Adrian P. Bracken1 & Kristian Helin2  About the authors

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The Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are transcriptional repressors that regulate lineage choices during development and differentiation. Recent studies have advanced our understanding of how the PcG proteins regulate cell fate decisions and how their deregulation potentially contributes to cancer. In this Review we discuss the emerging roles of long non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) and a subset of transcription factors, which we call cell fate transcription factors, in the regulation of PcG association with target genes. We also speculate about how their deregulation contributes to tumorigenesis.

Author affiliations

    1. The Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin and The Adelaide & Meath Hospital, including the National Children's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
      Email: adrian.bracken@tcd.ie
    2. Biotech Research and Innovation Centre (BRIC) and Centre for Epigenetics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 22009, Denmark.
      Email: kristian.helin@bric.ku.dk

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