Overexpression of mrps18-2 in cancer cell lines results in appearance of multinucleated cells

Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics of NASU, 150 Zabolotnogo str., Kyiv-143, 03680, Ukraine*E-mail: Elena.Kashuba@ki.seReceived 01.10.2012ABSTRACT Human mitochondrial ribosomal protein MRPS18-2 (S18-2) is encoded by a cellular gene that is lo-cated on the human chromosome 6p21.3. We have discovered that overexpression of the S18-2 protein led to im-mortalization and de-differentiation of primary rat embryonic fibroblasts. Cells showed anchorage-independent growth pattern. Moreover, pathways characteristic for rapidly proliferating cells were upregulated then. It is possible that the S18-2 overexpression induced disturbance in cell cycle regulation. We found that overexpres-sion of S18-2 protein in human cancer cell lines led to an appearance of multinucleated cells in the selected clones. KEY WORDS Mitochondrial ribosomal protein S18-2 (MRPS18-2), multinucleated cells, cancer cell line, cell cycle, RB binding protein.INTRODUCTIONMitochondrial ribosomal protein S18-2 (MrPS18-2, nP_05476, S18-2 in the text) is encoded by a cellu-lar gene located on human chromosome 6p21.3. S18-2 cDnA was cloned after analysis of the differentially expressed genes in cD34