SAM68: Signal Transduction and RNA Metabolism in Human Cancer

Figure 4

Role(s) of SAM68 in transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression in cancer cells. SAM68 and its regulatory networks contribute to important process involved in cancer initiation and progression, such as apoptosis, proliferation, and cytoskeletal reorganization, through different mechanisms. After posttranslational modifications (PTMs) induced by extracellular stimuli and mediated by SRC family kinases, SAM68 is committed to the nucleus where it is able to (1) promote or repress transcription of different targets (see Figure 2 for more details) and (2-3) regulate alternative splicing events through several molecular mechanisms, some of them mediated by lncRNAs (see Figure 3 for more details). In the nucleus, SAM68 can localize in specific bodies (SNB) and associate with other proteins (i.e., BRK kinase) that modify its phosphorylation status, thus affecting its RNA binding activity.