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[Report] RNA-binding proteins ZFP36L1 and ZFP36L2 promote cell quiescence

ScienceNOW - Fetched: April 21st, 2016, 3:00pm UTC

Progression through the stages of lymphocyte development requires coordination of the cell cycle. Such coordination ensures genomic integrity while cells somatically rearrange their antigen receptor genes [in a process called variable-diversity-joining (VDJ) recombination] and, upon successful rearrangement, expands the pools of progenitor lymphocytes. Here we show that in developing B lymphocytes, the RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) ZFP36L1 and ZFP36L2 are critical for maintaining quiescence before precursor B cell receptor (pre-BCR) expression and for reestablishing quiescence after pre-BCR–induced expansion. These RBPs suppress an evolutionarily conserved posttranscriptional regulon consisting of messenger RNAs whose protein products cooperatively promote transition into the S phase of the cell cycle. This mechanism promotes VDJ recombination and effective selection of cells expressing immunoglobulin-μ at the pre-BCR checkpoint. Authors: Alison Galloway, Alexander Saveliev, Sebastian Łukasiak, Daniel J. Hodson, Daniel Bolland, Kathryn Balmanno, Helena Ahlfors, Elisa Monzón-Casanova, Sara Ciullini Mannurita, Lewis S. Bell, Simon Andrews, Manuel D. Díaz-Muñoz, Simon J. Cook, Anne Corcoran, Martin Turner

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