Gene Regulation and Systems Biology

Moe Tategu, Takako Arauchi, Rena Tanaka, Hiroki Nakagawa and Kenichi Yoshida

Department of Life Sciences, Meiji University School of Agriculture, 1-1-1 Higashimita, Tama-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 214-8571, Japan.

Abstract: Fanconi anemia (FA) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by congenital abnormalities, bone marrow failure, chromosome fragility, and cancer susceptibility. At least eleven members of the FA gene family have been identified using complementation experiments. Ubiquitin-proteasome has been shown to be a key regulator of FA proteins and their involvement in the repair of DNA damage. Here, we identifi ed a novel functional link between the FA/BRCA pathway and E2F-mediated cell cycle regulome. In silico mining of a transcriptome database and promoter analyses revealed that a significant number of FA gene members were regulated by E2F transcription factors, known to be pivotal regulators of cell cycle progression – as previously described for BRCA1. Our findings suggest that E2Fs partly determine cell fate through the FA/BRCA pathway.