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Physiological functions of MTA family of proteins

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Abstract

Although the functional significance of the metastasic tumor antigen (MTA) family of chromatin remodeling proteins in the pathobiology of cancer is fairly well recognized, the physiological role of MTA proteins continues to be an understudied research area and is just beginning to be recognized. Similar to cancer cells, MTA1 also modulates the expression of target genes in normal cells either by acting as a corepressor or coactivator. In addition, physiological functions of MTA proteins are likely to be influenced by its differential expression, subcellular localization, and regulation by upstream modulators and extracellular signals. This review summarizes our current understanding of the physiological functions of the MTA proteins in model systems. In particular, we highlight recent advances of the role MTA proteins play in the brain, eye, circadian rhythm, mammary gland biology, spermatogenesis, liver, immunomodulation and inflammation, cellular radio-sensitivity, and hematopoiesis and differentiation. Based on the growth of knowledge regarding the exciting new facets of the MTA family of proteins in biology and medicine, we speculate that the next burst of findings in this field may reveal further molecular regulatory insights of non-redundant functions of MTA coregulators in the normal physiology as well as in pathological conditions outside cancer.

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Acknowledgments

We apologize for not citing many other deserving studies from our colleagues due to space limitations. We thank fellows, research staff and colleagues in the Kumar laboratory for their contribution to the biology of MTA1 in cancer. The MTA1 project in Kumar’s lab is supported by NIH grant CA098823.

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The authors declare no potential conflict of interest.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20037, USA

    Nirmalya Sen, Bin Gui & Rakesh Kumar

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  1. Nirmalya Sen
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  2. Bin Gui
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Correspondence to Rakesh Kumar.

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Sen, N., Gui, B. & Kumar, R. Physiological functions of MTA family of proteins. Cancer Metastasis Rev 33, 869–877 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10555-014-9514-4

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