The paper:
L. He et al., “A microRNA component of the p53 tumour suppressor network,” Nature, 447:1130–34, 2007. (Cited in 151 papers)
The finding:
Comparing wild-type mouse embryonic fibroblasts to cells lacking the cell cycle regulator p53, molecular biologist Gregory Hannon of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory identified a family of microRNAs known as miR-34s whose transcription is directly regulated by p53. Overexpression of these microRNAs inhibited cell growth and caused cell cycle arrest, suggesting that the miR-34 family plays a critical role in the p53 tumor suppressor pathway.
The others:
In the summer of 2007, four other papers also independently confirmed that p53 controls miR-34 expression. Using different methodologies, these studies further highlighted miR-34’s effects on apoptosis and senescence, says Nikhil Chari, a molecular biologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Hannon adds, “This raised a whole new class of possibilities for what downstream effectors were even ...
