Seminar

ING proteins in cellular senescence and tumor suppression.

Dr. Ignacio Palmero

Cellular senescence is an effective anti-tumor barrier that acts by restraining the uncontrolled proliferation of cells carrying potentially oncogenic alterations. In our lab, we are interested in understanding the regulation of cellular senescence, particularly in connection with the p53 tumour-suppressor pathway. ING proteins are putative tumor suppressor proteins functionally linked to the p53 pathway and to chromatin regulation. ING proteins exert their tumor-protective action through different types of responses, such as cell-cycle arrest, apoptosis or senescence. We have used gain and loss of function strategies to try to dissect the role of ING1 in control of senescence using Ing1-deficient mouse embryonic fibroblast, and primary human fibroblasts. Our results show that Ing1-deficiency results in an impaired induction of senescence. We also show that induction of senescence by ING1 in human cells requires an intact p53 pathway, and proper recognition of chromatin marks. Taken together, our results support an important role of ING1 as regulator of cellular senescence, in connection with the p53 pathway and chromatin organisation.