Role of Mammalian Ecdysoneless in Cell Cycle Regulation

The Ecdysoneless (Ecd) protein is required for cell-autonomous roles in development and oogenesis in Drosophila, but the function of its evolutionarily conserved mammalian orthologs is not clear. To study the cellular function of Ecd in mammalian cells, we generated Ecdlox/lox mouse embryonic fibroblast cells from Ecd floxed mouse embryos. Cre-mediated deletion of Ecd in Ecdlox/lox mouse embryonic fibroblasts led to a proliferative block due to a delay in G1-S cell cycle progression; this defect was reversed by the introduction of human Ecd. Loss of Ecd led to marked down-regulation of E2F target gene expression. Furthermore, Ecd directly bound to Rb at the pocket domain and competed with E2F for binding to hypophosphorylated Rb. Our results demonstrate that mammalian Ecd plays a role in cell cycle progression via the Rb-E2F pathway.