Biologists Yoichiro Tamori and Wu-Min Deng, along with colleagues in Britain, have identified a gene that is critical in fighting cancer cells.

They first identified the gene, which they nicknamed Mahjong after a Chinese game, and its interactions in fruit flies, but have since observed the interactions in mammalian cell cultures. Mahjong binds to the tumor suppressor gene “Lethal giant Larvae” (Lgl) and interacts in such a way that the Mahjong gene determines which cancerous cells kill themselves. Earlier studies had already shown that Lgl worked with other proteins to prevent the development of tumors, although researchers didn’t know what those proteins were. But Tamori, Deng, and colleagues discovered that Lgl had only one other binding protein: Mahjong.

“In addition to identifying Mahjong and its relationship with Lgl,” said Deng, “we confirmed that both genes function in the same pathway in both fruit flies and mammals to regulate cellular competitiveness.”

The findings were published July 13, 2010 in PLoS Biology.

Tamori is a postdoctoral fellow in FSU’s Department of Biological Science, and Deng is an associate professor in the department. Tamori is first author on the paper, while other FSU authors include Deng, Ai-Guo Tian, Yi-Chun Huang, Nicholas Harrison, and John Poulton. Authors from University College London include Carl Uli Bialucha, Mihoko Kajita, Mark Norman, Kenzo Ivanovitch, Lena Disch, Tao Liu, and Yasuyuki Fujita. To read more, go to http://www.fsu.edu/news/2010/07/13/key.gene/