Arrest of cell growth by necdin, a nuclear protein expressed in postmitotic neurons.

Necdin is a 325 amino acid residue protein localized to the nuclei of postmitotic neurons, which withdraw permanently from the cell cycle. To examine whether necdin confers the postmitotic phenotype, necdin cDNA was stably transfected into NIH3T3 cells, in which the protein was conditionally expressed using a eukaryotic lac repressor-operator expression system. When the transfectants were induced to express ectopic necdin, cell growth was arrested without appreciable reduction in cell viability. The expressed necdin molecule was localized to the nuclei of the transfectants. These results suggest that necdin is a nuclear factor that governs the permanent arrest of cell growth of postmitotic neurons during development of the nervous systems of vertebrates.