Growth inhibition by overexpression of human DEAD box protein rck/p54 in cells of a guinea pig cell line

Abstract

We transfected cells of a guinea pig cell line with RCK cDNA inserted in a pIRES1neo expression vector. The overexpression of rck/p54 was confirmed by Western blot and RT-PCR analysis. In two clones expressing rck/p54, the cell growth was highly inhibited; and their anchorage-independent growth, which is an important character of malignant transformation, was not found. These findings are the first evidence that the overexpression of a DEAD box protein/RNA helicase could inhibit substantially cell growth at the translational level.