Role of pRB2/p130 in cellular growth regulation.

Cellular growth control in multicellular organisms has been shown to be essential to maintaining homeostasis. The retinoblastoma family of tumor suppressor proteins, pRB, p107 and pRB2/p130, encode proteins that act as transcriptional repressors of cell cycle-regulating and -promoting genes. The three proteins share similar and overlapping, yet distinctive, structural and functional features. Obvious differences are time and regulation of expression and the regulation of the functionality of pRb, p107 and pRB2/p130 by phosphorylation. PRB2/p130 is unique in that it is preferentially expressed and active in differentiated and silenced cells. This review discusses retinoblastoma family protein functions and the role of pRB2/p130 in cellular regulation.