Studies on the function of eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) in apoptosis by means of a surrogate p53 reporter in Drosophila

CORUJO GONZALO; CAMPAGNO ROMINA; RIVERA POMAR ROLANDO; FERRERO PAOLA

San Luis

Congreso; XLVII reunión anual de investigación en bioquímica y biología molecular; 2011

eIF4E promotes translation upon binding the mRNA 5´cap and it is required for cell proliferation. p53 is a proapoptotic protein which is activated in response to DNA damage. There is evidence that suggests that eIF4E and p53 are connected in a mechanism that regulates their function. We propose a model for that such a mechanism to explain the equilibrium between apoptosis and cell proliferation. Our data shows a correlation between the overexpresion of eIF4E and the supression of apoptosis triggered by the overexpresion of p53 in Drosophila imaginal discs. We also studied a reporter transgene which expresses GFP in response to p53 activation by gamma radiation. We could confirm that this p53 surrogate works in imaginal discs as well as in embryos. This provided us a tool to quantify the effect on the GFP signal by overexpresion of eIF4E to confirm how these two proteins could interact in vivo. Our results suggest that p53 and eIF4E are indeed in an equilibrium that decides if a cell shall proliferate or die.