Uncovering the link between malfunctions in Drosophila neuroblast asymmetric cell division and tumorigenesis

Cell & Bioscience

Table 1 Key players in asymmetric cell division

Asymmetric division protein	Protein function	Phenotype associated with mutation	References
Numb	Neuronal differentiation	NB overproliferation	[23–27]
Pon	Neuronal differentiation	Delocalization of Numb	[28]
Brat	Regulates Prospero localization Inhibits translation	Delocalization of Prospero; NB overproliferation	[29–32]
Miranda	Localization of basal proteins	Delocalization of basal proteins; NB overproliferation	[3, 33]
Prospero	Neuronal differentiation	NB overproliferation	[29–31, 34–37]
Staufen	Localization of Prospero mRNA	Delocalization of Prospero mRNA	[3]
Pins, Gαi, Loco	Spindle orientation	Delocalization of basal proteins; NB overproliferation	[38–46]
Pins, Gαi, Loco	Localization of basal proteins
Inscuteable	Links the heterotrimeric G protein complex with the Par complex
aPKC, Bazooka/Par3, Par6	Maintaining apical and basal polarity	Apical and basal polarity defects	[28, 32, 33, 47–57]
Mud	Spindle orientation	Spindle misorientation; NB overproliferation	[39–46, 56, 58, 59]
Lgl (cortical localization)	Localization of basal proteins	Delocalization of basal proteins; NB overproliferation	[32, 49–54]
Aurora A (centrosome)	Maintaining apical/basal polarity	Apical and basal polarity defects; spindle misorientation, NB overproliferation	[25, 26, 60–64]
Polo (centrosome)	Spindle orientation
PP2A (cytoplasmic)	Spindle orientation
Dpn	NB specification	Loss of NB	[20]
Zif	Apical/basal polarity	Apical and basal polarity defects; NB overproliferation	[55]

Cells are colored based on localization. Green denotes basal localization, blue denotes apical localization, and purple indicates nuclear localization.

ISSN: 2045-3701