Co-expression of P53 and P60-katanin shapes transcriptome dynamics

Microtubules (MT), essential elements of the cytoskeleton have important roles in the cell such as intracellular cargo transport, cell motility and cell division. They provide support, growth and maintenance of the axonal and dendritic processes in neurons. Microtubule severing proteins such as katanin and spastin have roles in microtubule reconfiguration. Katanin is one of the best characterized severing proteins and is composed of catalytic subunit p60-katanin and regulatory subunit p80-katanin. The microtubule severing mechanism of p60-katanin has been depicted in detail, but how p60-katanin itself is regulated is still little-known. p53 is an important protein between proliferation and differentiation. It regulates different cellular mechanisms such as cell cycle arrest, senescence, differentiation, and apoptosis. p53 controls proliferation in dividing cells and is related to differentiation by means of affecting neuronal process length in non-dividing neurons. Both p53 and p60-katanin have critical roles in proliferation and differentiation separately. Moreover, these proteins were shown to physically interact, but their combined effect remains unclear. To this aim, the current study reveals the effects of p53 – p60-katanin co-expression on transcriptome of the fibroblast cells. Data indicated that the transcriptome of many different pathways such as actin regulation, neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, and serotonergic synapses pathways were altered under p53 – p60-katanin co-expression conditions. Exploring combined effect of p53 and p60-katanin will help in design of new studies to better understand not only microtubule regulation but also neurodegenerative diseases that are linked to the reactivation of cell cycle and neuronal damage where two of these players take place.