Sponges: A Reservoir of Genes Implicated in Human Cancer

Ćetković, Helena; Halasz, Mirn; Herak Bosnar, Maja (2018) Sponges: A Reservoir of Genes Implicated in Human Cancer. Marine drugs, 16 (1). ISSN 1660-3397

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Official URL: http://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/16/1/20

Abstract

Recently, it was shown that the majority of genes linked to human diseases, such as cancer genes, evolved in two major evolutionary transitions—the emergence of unicellular organisms and the transition to multicellularity. Therefore, it has been widely accepted that the majority of disease-related genes has already been present in species distantly related to humans. An original way of studying human diseases relies on analyzing genes and proteins that cause a certain disease using model organisms that belong to the evolutionary level at which these genes have emerged. This kind of approach is supported by the simplicity of the genome/proteome, body plan, and physiology of such model organisms. It has been established for quite some time that sponges are an ideal model system for such studies, having a vast variety of genes known to be engaged in sophisticated processes and signalling pathways associated with higher animals. Sponges are considered to be the simplest multicellular animals and have changed little during evolution. Therefore, they provide an insight into the metazoan ancestor genome/proteome features. This review compiles current knowledge of cancer-related genes/proteins in marine sponges.

Item Type:

Article

Uncontrolled Keywords:

porifera/sponge ; evolution ; cancer ; cancer genes ; molecular oncology

Subjects:

NATURAL SCIENCES > Biology

Divisions:

Division of Molecular Biology

Projects:

Project title	Project leader	Project code	Project type
Nemo6-Struktura, funkcija i evolucija proteina Nme6/Nm23-H6	Maja Herak Bosnar	IP-2016-06-4021	HRZZ
Istraživanje razvoja, diferencijacije i evolucije životinja kroz genomiku bazalnih metazoa-BAMGEN	Kristian Vlahoviček	IP-2014-09-6400	HRZZ

Depositing User:

Helena Ćetković

Date Deposited:

16 Jan 2018 15:28

URI:

http://fulir.irb.hr/id/eprint/3814

DOI:

10.3390/md16010020