Molecular Oncology
Volume 3, Issue 4 , Pages 354-365, August 2009

At the crossroads of polarity, proliferation and apoptosis: The use of Drosophila to unravel the multifaceted role of endocytosis in tumor suppression

  • Thomas Vaccari

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding authors. Tel.: +39 02 57430 3823; fax: +39 02 57430 3231 (T. Vaccari), Tel.: +1 510 642 8605; fax: +1 510 643 7440 (D. Bilder).
    • Present address: IFOM, Istituto FIRC di Oncologia Molecolare, Milano, Italy.
    • ,
  • David Bilder

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding authors. Tel.: +39 02 57430 3823; fax: +39 02 57430 3231 (T. Vaccari), Tel.: +1 510 642 8605; fax: +1 510 643 7440 (D. Bilder).

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

Received 5 May 2009; accepted 25 May 2009. published online 18 June 2009.

Abstract 

Endocytosis is an important regulator of cell–cell signaling and endocytic trafficking has been increasingly implicated in control of tumor suppression. Recent insights from Drosophila indicate that impairment of multiple trafficking steps which lead to receptor degradation can cause tumor formation in epithelial organs. These tumors are characterized by sustained activation of a number of mitogenic signaling pathways, and by subversion of epithelial polarity and the apoptotic response. Cooperation between such alterations, as well as tumor–host interactions, is also observed. The recapitulation of several hallmarks of human cancers in fly tumors provides a framework to understand the role of defective endocytosis in cancer.

Keywords: Endocytosis, Tumor suppression genes, Drosophila, Mitogenic signaling, Polarity, Apoptosis, Notch, EGFR, JNK, ESCRT

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PII: S1574-7891(09)00076-3

doi:10.1016/j.molonc.2009.05.005

Molecular Oncology
Volume 3, Issue 4 , Pages 354-365, August 2009

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