Two University researchers have uncovered a biological mechanism in worms that has shed light on evolution and could someday help tame cancerous cell development in humans.
Biology professor Bruce Bowerman and molecular biology research associate Stephan Schneider documented how a protein called beta-catenin activates certain genes regulating how an embryonic cell grows and divides.
Several genes are prominent in causing cancer, and beta-catenin, because it works in the cell developmental and regulation stages, may stop tumors from forming by switching off certain genes, Bowerman said.
“If you could manipulate the regulation, then that could be valuable for drugs to treat cancer,” he said.
Sergei Sokol, professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said Schneider and Bowerman’s work will help scientists understand how beta-catenin might be helpful, but will also spark more research on the protein.
“More people will be looking after this study. In fact, our lab is already looking,” he said.
Schneider and Bowerman’s study, published in the July edition of the journal “Developmental Cell,” was based on tying together the evolution of two species of worms placed in different branches of the scientific classification system.
Despite the different classification – or phyla – Schneider and Bowerman found that the bristle worm and the commonly studied roundworm shared a developmental similarity that suggested a common ancestor.
The researchers noticed a pattern: The roundworm, studied for many years, was known to exhibit an asymmetrical pattern of beta-catenin distribution throughout its cells. When a roundworm embryonic cell divided, it formed two sister cells that had different beta-catenin characteristics. Schneider and Bowerman found this same pattern in the bristle worm.
Hitoshi Sawa, a researcher with Japan’s RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, said in an e-mail the finding was exciting because it shows how a well-documented mechanism in a single species can appear in another. Similar research could therefore shed light on evolutionary ties between other species.
Schneider, the report’s main author, has worked with bristle worms for more than 15 years, and introduced the worm to the United States as a research specimen three years ago. The species is an excellent research candidate because of its timeless characteristics.
“This species is 500 to 600 million years old. We know this from fossils. They make the ideal specimen because their morphology is pretty stable: The worm has not changed much,” he said.
Schneider explained the significance of understanding unseen links in evolutionary models.
“The importance is in how genes work today to how they worked in the past,” Schneider said. “It creates a new, deeper level of understanding to connect things.”
Nipam Patel, a professor at University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, said the findings represented a “beautiful piece of developmental biology.”
“Their work is very thought-provoking because of two possibilities: This is a system that’s really ancient – maintained in some recent lineage – and the alternative is that it’s been independently developed in two different organisms. The next step is to do research on other phyla,” he said.