Project description:FAN (Factor associated with neutral sphingomyelinase activation) is an adaptor protein that constitutively binds to TNF-R1. Microarray analysis was performed in fibroblasts derived from wild-type or FAN knockout mouse embryos to evaluate the role of FAN in TNF-induced gene expression. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying cellularisation and identified distinct classes of up-regulated genes during this process. Keywords: genetic modification
Project description:FAN (Factor associated with neutral sphingomyelinase activation) is an adaptor protein that constitutively binds to TNF-R1. Microarray analysis was performed in fibroblasts derived from wild-type or FAN knockout mouse embryos to evaluate the role of FAN in TNF-induced gene expression. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying cellularisation and identified distinct classes of up-regulated genes during this process. Experiment Overall Design: MEFs were derived from C57BL/6 embryos that were either wild type or FAN-/-. Cells were either grown in DMEM 0%FCS for 24h or DMEM 0% FCS for 8h followed by incubation in DMEM 0% FCS containing 50ng/ml TNF for 16h. These four conditions were each used to generate total RNA (RNeasy MidiKit, Qiagen) which was sent to AROS applied biotechnology (Sweden) for Affymetrix GeneChip Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Array analysis.
Project description:All cells and organisms exhibit stress-coping mechanisms to ensure survival. Cytoplasmic protein-RNA assemblies termed stress granules are increasingly recognized to promote cellular survival under stress. Thus, they might represent tumor vulnerabilities that are currently poorly explored. The translation-inhibitory eIF2α kinases are established as main drivers of stress granule assembly. Using a systems approach, we identify the translation enhancers PI3K and MAPK/p38 as pro-stress-granule-kinases. They act through the metabolic master regulator mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) to promote stress granule assembly. When highly active, PI3K is the main driver of stress granules; however, the impact of p38 becomes apparent as PI3K activity declines. PI3K and p38 thus act in a hierarchical manner to drive mTORC1 activity and stress granule assembly. Of note, this signaling hierarchy is also present in human breast cancer tissue. Importantly, only the recognition of the PI3K-p38 hierarchy under stress enabled the discovery of p38’s role in stress granule formation. In summary, we assign a new pro-survival function to the key oncogenic kinases PI3K and p38, as they hierarchically promote stress granule formation.