ABSTRACT: The Polycomb Group Proteins (PcG) are epigenetic regulatory complexes, dysregulation of which has been associated with multiple biological processes, including maintenance of cell identity, differentiation, proliferation, and cancer progression.PcGs form two multiprotein complexes, Polycomb repressive complex 1 (PRC1) and PRC2(1).The PRC2 protein complex mainly consists of Early embryonic deficient (EED), Suppressor of Zeste (SUZ12) and Enhancer of Zeste (EZH), which can catalyzes the trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3), thereby leaving a transcriptionally repressive mark on the chromatin . Such alterations are recognized and read by canonical PRC1 which is composed of CBX (polycomb), PCGF (polycomb group factor), HPH (human polyhomeotic homolog), and the E3-ligase protein (RING) that catalyzes the monoubiquitination of histone H2A on lysine 119 (H2AK119ub1). The H3K27me3 mark is identified by and binds to the chromodomain within the CBX protein in PRC1, thereby ubiquitinating H2AK119 via the RING proteins. The interaction of PRC2 and PRC1 in chromatin contributes to chromatin compaction and transcriptional silencing of target genes.There are five chromobox proteins in humans, CBX2, 4, 6, 7 and 8. Increasing evidence supports essential roles of CBX proteins in tumorigenesis. Remarkably, CBX proteins have shown an opposite function in distinct cancer types in tumor development. For example, CBX7 is overexpressed in ovarian and prostate cancer , implying its oncogenic role in these tumor types. In contrast, CBX7 functions as a tumor suppressor and loss of CBX7 has been associated with increasing the malignancy grade in bladder, breast, pancreatic, glioma, and colon carcinomas (3 4 5 6 7), but its tumor suppression mechanism is unclear.
