Melanoma AntiGEn D2 : a new nucleolar protein undergoing delocalization during cell cycle and after cellular stress

MAGED2 belongs to the Melanoma AntiGEn (MAGE) family of proteins. Actually, little is known on MAGED2 function. It contributes to the initiation of melanoma when its overexpression is associated with the mutation of BRAF and it increases apoptosis induced by TRAIL in a p53-dependent manner. MAGED2 was also shown to be a negative regulator of p53, bur we did not confirm this properties. Moreover, proteomic analyses detected numerous phosphorylated or acetylated residues in response to stess and within cell cycle suggesting its involvement in cellular signal transduction. We investigated the intra-cellular re-localization of MAGED2 during cell cycle and after genotixc stress. Both nucleolar and nuclear signals were identifed.