Abstract
A novel cell growth regulator, named Falkor, was identified using a functional approach to mammalian gene cloning, the Genetic Supressor Elements (GSE) method. In this screen, expression of the C-terminal domain of Falkor conferred cells with resistance to cisplatin-induced growth arrest. Expression of the C-terminus of Falkor, but not of the full-length protein, enhanced cell growth both following genotoxic stress and under normal conditions suggesting a general role for this protein in cell growth control. This effect of the C-terminus fragment was abrogated by over-expression of the full-length Falkor, suggesting that the fragment counteracts the function of the full-length protein. Falkor is encoded by a 2-kb mRNA which is present at different levels in various tissues, and is localized in the nucleus of cells. The C-terminal domain of Falkor, isolated from the GSE library, has significant homology to a known human and rat cell growth regulator, SM-20, and to the C. elegans protein EGL-9, recently shown to modify the Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1α. The homology suggests that these proteins share a functional domain that is conserved among a family of growth regulation proteins.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Tal Raveh for critical reading of the manuscript. The authors would like to thank Noam Erez for his help with the cell staining and microscopic analysis. This work was supported in part by grants from the Israel-USA Binational Science Foundation (BSF) and the German Israeli Foundation for Sciencific Research and Development (GIF). V Rotter is the incumbent of the Normal and Helen Asher Professorial Chair in Cancer Research at the Weizmann Institute. N Erez was awarded an UICC ICRETT grant (No. 992).
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The nucleotide sequence reported in this study was submitted to the GenBank with accession number AF340231.
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Erez, N., Milyavsky, M., Goldfinger, N. et al. Falkor, a novel cell growth regulator isolated by a functional genetic screen. Oncogene 21, 6713–6721 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1205867
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1205867