What does p53 activation do?

Activation of p53 in response to DNA damage is associated with a rapid increase in its levels and with an increased ability of p53 to bind DNA and mediate transcriptional activation. This then leads to the activation of a number of genes whose products trigger cell-cycle arrest, apoptosis, or DNA repair.

What are two of the roles of the p53 protein?

p53 is a tumor suppressor protein and transcription factor that regulates cell division and prevents tumor formation by stopping cells with mutated or damaged DNA from dividing and signaling for them to undergo apoptosis through transcriptional regulation.

Is p53 a mitochondrial protein?

p53 regulates the mitochondrial respiration Cytochrome c oxidase (COX) is known as complex IV and plays the vital role in the respiratory chain. It contains three mitochondrial DNA encoding subunits and ten nuclear DNA encoding subunits (Assaily and Benchimol 2006, Yang et al. 2010).

How does p53 gene play an important role in DNA damage?

p53 plays a prominent role as a facilitator of DNA repair by halting the cell cycle to allow time for the repair machineries to restore genome stability. In addition, p53 took on diverse roles to also directly impact the activity of various DNA-repair systems.

How does p53 work as a tumor suppressor?

The p53 gene like the Rb gene, is a tumor suppressor gene, i.e., its activity stops the formation of tumors. If a person inherits only one functional copy of the p53 gene from their parents, they are predisposed to cancer and usually develop several independent tumors in a variety of tissues in early adulthood.

How does p53 activation in response to DNA damage affect cell cycle progression and cell survival?

After UV-induced DNA damage, activated p53 induces the expression of p48 and XPC, thus increasing the cell’s capacity to locate and target DNA damage for repair. At least two observations support the trans requirement for p53 in regulating NER.

How does the function of p53 relate to cell-cycle and cell signaling?

Subsequently, p53 can halt the cell’s progression through the cell cycle in order to either activate DNA repair pathways, cell senescence or apoptosis. If the damage is sustainable for repair, p53 will cause cell cycle arrest to promote the transcription of proteins that will repair the damage.