Bicaudal-C Post-transcriptional regulator of cell fates and functions

• Published in: Frontiers in cell and developmental biology Vol. 10; p. 981696
• Main Authors: Dowdle, Megan E, Kanzler, Charlotte R, Harder, Cole R K, Moffet, Samuel, Walker, Maya N, Sheets, Michael D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 07.09.2022
• Subjects: Bicaudal-C family RNA binding protein 1 (Bicc1); Cell and Developmental Biology; cell fate and differentiation; embryonic cell fate; mRNA translation; post-transcripional control; Bicaudal-C family RNA binding protein 1 (Bicc1); embryonic cell fate; post-transcripional control; mRNA translation; cell fate and differentiation
• ISSN: 2296-634X; 2296-634X
• DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2022.981696

Bicaudal-C (Bicc1) is an evolutionarily conserved RNA binding protein that functions in a regulatory capacity in a variety of contexts. It was originally identified as a genetic locus in that when disrupted resulted in radical changes in early development. In the most extreme phenotypes embryos carrying mutations developed with mirror image duplications of posterior structures and it was this striking phenotype that was responsible for the name Bicaudal. These seminal studies established Bicc1 as an important regulator of development. What was not anticipated from the early work, but was revealed subsequently in many different organisms was the broad fundamental impact that Bicc1 proteins have on developmental biology; from regulating cell fates in vertebrate embryos to defects associated with several human disease states. In the following review we present a perspective of Bicc1 focusing primarily on the molecular aspects of its RNA metabolism functions in vertebrate embryos.