Beclin Mouse, Unlabeled, Clone: 20, BD

Description

• Autophagy is the bulk degradation of cellular proteins through the autophagosomic-lysosomal pathway
• This process is important for normal cell growth, and may be disrupted in tumor cells
• Beclin is a Bcl-2 binding protein that is homologous to the yeast autophagy gene, apg6/vps30
• The structure of beclin includes a Bcl-2 binding coiled-coil region, and a leucine-rich nuclear export signal (NES)
• Beclin protein colocalizes with intracytoplasmic organelles and nuclei in normal COS7 and MCF7 cells
• However, inhibition of CRM1-dependent nuclear export leads to beclin localization primarily in the nucleus
• Mutation of the NES domain of beclin also prevents nuclear export, as well as suppresses beclin-mediated nutrient deprivation-induced autophagy
• In addition, these beclin mutants can not inhibit in vitro clonigenicity and in vivo tumorigenicity of MCF7 cells
• Beclin interaction with Bcl-2 may be involved with host viral defense, since overexpression of beclin inhibits Sindbis virus replication and expression of beclin lacking the Bcl-2 binding domain has no antiviral effects
• Thus, beclin may be an important component of complexes involved in autophagy
• Western Blotting