The Cold-Shock Domain Protein YB-1 Is Important for Cellular Proliferation and the Prevention of Premature Senescence.

Mammalian proteins containing “cold-shock” domains belong to the most evolutionarily conserved family of nucleic acid-binding proteins known in bacteria, plants, and animals. One of these proteins, YB-1, has been implicated in basic cellular functions such as cell proliferation and responses to environmental stresses. In mammalian cells, YB-1 has been shown to shuttle between the nuclear and cytoplasmic compartments. Within the nucleus, YB-1 interacts with several DNA-and pre-mRNA-binding proteins, and has been implicated in nuclear activities, including transcriptional regulation, chromatin remodeling, and pre-mRNA splicing. YB-1 is also abundant in the cytoplasm, where it binds nonspecifically to mRNA, and may act as a general regulator of mRNA stability, cytoplasmic localization, and translation. Thus, YB-1 has been proposed to function as a multifunctional regulator for the control of gene expression in both the nucleus and cytoplasm. YB-1 overexpression has been frequently detected in a variety of human cancers, often associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes. However, it remains unclear whether YB-1 overexpression contributes directly to the malignant phenotype, or whether it is simply a non-causal “marker” associated with rapid cell growth (and poor prognostic outcomes). To further assess the role of this protein in health and disease, we created mice deficient for YB-1. Complete loss of function of this gene results in fully-penetrant late embryonic and perinatal lethality. Morphological and histological analyses revealed that YB-1^−/− embryos displayed major developmental and functional defects, including neurological abnormalities, hemorrhage, and respiratory failure, which probably contributed to lethality. Growth retardation occurred in all late-stage embryos, and was the result of hypoplasia in multiple organ systems. Consistent with these in vivo results, fibroblasts isolated from YB-1^−/− embryos (MEFs) grew slowly and entered senescence prematurely in vitro; these defects were rescued by ectopic expression of a GFP-tagged human YB-1 cDNA. This data suggests that YB-1 plays an important cell-autonomous role in cell proliferation and prevention of premature senescence. We further showed that loss of YB-1 in early passage MEFs resulted a delay in G0/G1 to S-phase progression, and a defect in a transcriptional mechanism that normally represses the expression of the G1-specific CDK inhibitor gene p16Ink4a, and the p53 target genes p21Cip1 and Mdm2. However, YB-1 does not cause “global” changes in the transcriptome, the proteome, or protein synthesis efficiency. As predicted, p16Ink4a and p21Cip1 double knockdown by siRNA treatment led to an increase in the rate of cell proliferation, and an extension of proliferative capacity during late passages in YB-1^−/− cells. Furthermore, YB-1 deficiency reduced the ability of MEFs to proliferate normally in response to c-Myc overexpression. In conclusion, our data has revealed that YB-1 is required for normal mouse development and survival, and that it plays an important role in supporting rapid cellular proliferation both in vivo and in vitro. Our data further suggests that YB-1 is a cell cycle progression regulator that is important for preventing the early onset of senescence in cultured MEF cells. This data raises the possibility that disregulated expression of YB-1 may contribute to malignant phenotypes by supporting rapid cell cycle progression, and by protecting cells from cytotoxic stresses.