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  • Opinion
  • Published:

Can corruption of chromosome cohesion create a conduit to cancer?

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 11, pages 199–210 (2011)Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 March 2011

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Abstract

Cohesin is a conserved multisubunit protein complex with diverse cellular roles, making key contributions to the coordination of chromosome segregation, the DNA damage response and chromatin regulation by epigenetic mechanisms. Much has been learned in recent years about the roles of cohesin in a physiological context, whereas its potential and emerging role in tumour initiation and/or progression has received relatively little attention. In this Opinion article we examine how cohesin deregulation could contribute to cancer development on the basis of its physiological roles.

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Figure 1: A broad overview of cohesin.
Figure 2: Topography and sequence variants of key SCC proteins and NIPBL in physiological and pathological states.
Figure 3: mRNA expression of cohesins and related genes in primary epithelial cancers.
Figure 4: Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) data showing cohesion-related loci changes in breast cancer.
Figure 5: Examples of cancer pathways in which cohesin and its regulatory and accessory proteins are implicated.

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Change history

  • 26 February 2011

    In figure 4 the REC8 locus was labelled 12q11.2 intsead of 14q11.2. This has been corrected on both the html and pdf versions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank R. Ramsay and M.-C. Vozenin for comments on the manuscript. H.X. and M.J.M. were supported by grants from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (Project grants 400207, 400310 and 1007659) and the Cancer Council Victoria (091224).

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  1. Huiling Xu and Jonathan M. Tomaszewski: H.X. and J.M.T. contributed equally to this work.

  2. michael.mckay@act.gov.au

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Huiling Xu is at the Research Division, and the Department of Pathology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria 8006, Australia, Faculty of Medicine and Dental Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3000, Australia.,

    Huiling Xu

  2. Jonathan M. Tomaszewski is at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria 8006, Australia.,

    Jonathan M. Tomaszewski

  3. Michael J. McKay is at the Department of Radiation Oncology, The Canberra Hospital, Yamba Drive, Garran, Australian Capital Territory 2065, Australia, and The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.,

    Michael J. McKay

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Xu, H., Tomaszewski, J. & McKay, M. Can corruption of chromosome cohesion create a conduit to cancer?. Nat Rev Cancer 11, 199–210 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3018

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