Retinoblastoma protein

The retinoblastoma protein (protein name abbreviated Rb or pRb; gene name abbreviated Rb, RB or RB1) is a tumor suppressor protein that is dysfunctional in several major cancers. One function of pRb is to prevent excessive cell growth by inhibiting cell cycle progression until a cell is ready to divide. When the cell is ready to divide, pRb is inactivated by phosphorylation, and the cell cycle is allowed to progress. It is also a recruiter of several chromatin remodeling enzymes such as methylases and acetylases.

pRb belongs to the pocket protein family, whose members have a pocket for the functional binding of other proteins. Should an oncogenic protein, such as those produced by cells infected by high-risk types of human papillomavirus, bind and inactivate pRb, this can lead to cancer. The RB gene may have been responsible for the evolution of multicellularity in several lineages of life including animals.

Name and genetics

In humans, the protein is encoded by the RB1 gene located on chromosome 13—more specifically, 13q14.1-q14.2. If both alleles of this gene are mutated in a retinal cell, the protein is inactivated and the cells grow uncontrollably, resulting in development of retinoblastoma, hence the "RB" in the name 'pRb'. Thus most pRb knock-outs occur in retinal tissue when UV radiation-induced mutation inactivates all healthy copies of the gene, but pRb knock-out has also been documented in certain skin cancers in patients from New Zealand where the amount of UV radiation is significantly higher.