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CtIP interacts with a group of tumor suppressor proteins including RB (retinoblastoma protein), BRCA1, Ikaros, and CtBP, which regulate cell cycle progression through transcriptional repression as well as chromatin remodeling. However, how CtIP exerts its biological function in cell cycle progression remains elusive. To address this issue, we generated an inactivated Ctip allele in mice by inserting a neo gene into exon 5. The corresponding Ctip-/- embryos died at embryonic day 4.0 (E4.0), and the blastocysts failed to enter S phase but accumulated in G1, leading to a slightly elevated cell death. Mouse NIH 3T3 cells depleted of Ctip were arrested at G1 with the concomitant increase in hypophosphorylated Rb and Cdk inhibitors, p21. However, depletion of Ctip failed to arrest Rb-/- mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) or human osteosarcoma Saos-2 cells at G1, suggesting that this arrest is RB dependent. Importantly, the life span of Ctip+/- heterozygotes was shortened by the development of multiple types of tumors, predominantly, large lymphomas. The wild-type Ctip allele and protein remained detectable in these tumors, suggesting that haploid insufficiency of Ctip leads to tumorigenesis. Taken together, this finding uncovers a novel G1/S regulation in that CtIP counteracts Rb-mediated G1 restraint. Deregulation of this function leads to a defect in early embryogenesis and contributes, in part, to tumor formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Hice1, a Novel Microtubule-Associated Protein Required for Maintenance of Spindle Integrity and Chromosomal Stability in Human Cells" by Guikai Wu, Yi-Tzu Lin, and Randy Wei is presented.

Faithful mitotic partitioning of the Golgi apparatus and the centrosome is critical for proper cell division. Although these two cytoplasmic organelles are probably coordinated during cell division, supporting evidence of this coordination is still largely lacking. Here, we show that the RAD50-interacting protein, RINT-1, is localized at the Golgi apparatus and the centrosome in addition to the endoplasmic reticulum. To examine the biological roles of RINT-1, we found that the homozygous deletion of Rint-1 caused early embryonic lethality at embryonic day 5 (E5) to E6 and the failure of blastocyst outgrowth ex vivo. About 81% of the Rint-1 heterozygotes succumbed to multiple tumor formation with haploinsufficiency during their average life span of 24 months. To pinpoint the cellular function of RINT-1, we found that RINT-1 depletion by RNA interference led to the loss of the pericentriolar positioning and dispersal of the Golgi apparatus and concurrent centrosome amplification during the interphase. Upon mitotic entry, RINT-1-deficient cells exhibited multiple abnormalities, including aberrant Golgi dynamics during early mitosis and defective reassembly at telophase, increased formation of multiple spindle poles, and frequent chromosome missegregation. Mitotic cells often underwent cell death in part due to the overwhelming cellular defects. Taken together, these findings suggest that RINT-1 serves as a novel tumor suppressor essential for maintaining the dynamic integrity of the Golgi apparatus and the centrosome, a prerequisite to their proper coordination during cell division. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell cycle progression from G1 to S phase is mainly controlled by E2F transcription factors and RB family proteins. Previously we showed that the presence of CtIP is essential for G1/S transition in primary mouse blastocysts, as well as in NIH 3T3 cells. However, how CtIP executes this function remains to be elucidated. Here we show that in NIH 3T3 cells the expression of CtIP is regulated by the E2F/RB pathway during late G1 and S phases. The presence of wild-type CtIP, but not the E157K mutant form, which failed to interact with RB, enhanced its own promoter activity. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis indicated that the recruitment of CtIP to its promoter occurs concomitantly with TFIIB, a component of the RNA polymerase II complex, and with dissociation of RB from the promoter during late G1 and G1/S transition. Similar positive regulation of cyclin D1 expression by CtIP was also observed. Consistently, cells expressing the CtIP(E157K) protein alone exhibited growth retardation, an increase in the G1 population, and a decrease in the S-phase population. Taken together, these results suggest that, contrary to the postulated universal corepressor role, CtIP activates a subset of E2F-responsive promoters by releasing RB-imposed repression and therefore promotes G1/S progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]