Diverse spatio-temporal dynamical patterns of p53 and cell fate decisions

Abstract

International audienceThe protein p53 as a tumour suppressor protein accumulates in cells in response to DNA damage and transactivates a large variety of genes involved in apoptosis, cell cycle regulation and numerous other processes. Recent biological observations suggest that specific spatio-temporal dynamical patterns of p53 may be associated with specific cellular response, and thus the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the p53 dynamics contributes to the overall complexity of p53 signalling. Reaction-diffusion equations taking into account spatial representation of the cell and motion of the species inside the cell can be used to model p53 protein network and could be thus of some help to biologists and pharmacologists in anticancer treatment