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Nme family of proteins—clues from simple animals

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Abstract

Nucleoside-diphosphate kinases (Nme/Nm23/NDPK) are evolutionarily conserved enzymes involved in many biological processes in vertebrates. The biochemical mechanisms of these processes are still largely unknown. The Nme family consists of ten members in humans of which Nme1/2 have been extensively studied in the context of carcinogenesis, especially metastasis formation. Lately, it has been proven that the majority of genes linked to human diseases were already present in species distantly related to humans. Most of cancer-related protein domains appeared during the two main evolutionary transitions—the emergence of unicellular eukaryotes and the transition to multicellular metazoans. In spite of these recent insights, current knowledge about cancer and status of cancer-related genes in simple animals is limited. One possible way of studying human diseases relies on analyzing genes/proteins that cause a certain disease by using model organism that represent the evolutionary level at which these genes have emerged. Therefore, basal metazoans are ideal model organisms for gaining a clearer picture how characteristics and functions of Nme genes changed in the transition to multicellularity and increasing complexity in animals, giving us exciting new evidence of their possible functions in potential pathological conditions in humans.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by Croatian MSES grants 098-0982913-2478 (H. Ćetković), 098-09824642513 (M. HerakBosnar) and FP7-REGPOT-2012-2013-1, Grant Agreement Number 316289—InnoMol.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Division of Molecular Biology, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička cesta 54, P.P. 180, 10002, Zagreb, Croatia

    Helena Ćetković, Dragutin Perina, Matija Harcet & Andreja Mikoč

  2. Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Division of Molecular Medicine, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička cesta 54, P.P. 180, 10002, Zagreb, Croatia

    Maja Herak Bosnar

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  1. Helena Ćetković
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  2. Dragutin Perina
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Correspondence to Helena Ćetković or Maja Herak Bosnar.

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Ćetković, H., Perina, D., Harcet, M. et al. Nme family of proteins—clues from simple animals. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 388, 133–142 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-014-1017-x

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