Braun Toby, Woollard Alison
Department of Biochemistry, Laboratory of Genes and Development, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Blood Cells Mol Dis. 2009 Jul-Aug;43(1):43-8. doi: 10.1016/j.bcmd.2009.05.001. Epub 2009 May 17.
Runt-related (RUNX) transcription factors are evolutionarily conserved regulators of cell proliferation, differentiation and stem cell maintenance. They are critical for the correct development and function of a variety of human tissues, including during haematopoiesis. RUNX genes regulate various aspects of proliferation control, stem cell maintenance, lineage commitment and regulation of differentiation; disruptions in the correct function of RUNX genes have been associated with human pathologies, most prominently cancer. Because of the high context dependency and partial redundancy of vertebrate RUNX genes, invertebrate model systems have been studied in the hope of finding an ancestral function. Here we review the progress of these studies in three invertebrate systems, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. All essential aspects of RUNX function in vertebrates have counterparts in invertebrates, confirming the usefulness of these studies in simpler organisms. The fact that not all RUNX functions are conserved in all systems, though, underscores the importance of choosing the right model to ask specific questions.
runt相关（RUNX）转录因子是细胞增殖、分化和干细胞维持过程中进化保守的调节因子。它们对于包括造血过程在内的多种人体组织的正常发育和功能至关重要。RUNX基因调节增殖控制、干细胞维持、谱系定向和分化调节的各个方面；RUNX基因正常功能的破坏与人类疾病相关，最显著的是癌症。由于脊椎动物RUNX基因具有高度的上下文依赖性和部分冗余性，因此对无脊椎动物模型系统进行了研究，以期找到其原始功能。在此，我们综述了在三种无脊椎动物系统（果蝇黑腹果蝇、海胆紫海胆和线虫秀丽隐杆线虫）中这些研究的进展。脊椎动物中RUNX功能的所有重要方面在无脊椎动物中都有对应物，这证实了在更简单生物体中进行这些研究的有用性。然而，并非所有RUNX功能在所有系统中都保守，这一事实凸显了选择合适模型来回答特定问题的重要性。
