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Updated: Jul 28, 2026

Systems Biology of Metabolic Regulation by Estrogen Receptor Signaling in Breast Cancer
Published on: March 17, 2016
Analysis of estrogen receptor alpha signaling complex at the plasma membrane
Kotaro Azuma1, Kuniko Horie, Satoshi Inoue
1Growth Factor Division, National Cancer Center Research Institute, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan.
Abstract:
There is accumulating evidence that the estrogen receptor (ER) can transduce specific signals at the plasma membrane. We tried to clarify the biological function of ER as a signaling molecule by identifying proteins that interact with the membrane-localized ER. The activation function 1 and 2 (AF-1 and AF-2) domains of ERalpha with or without the membrane-targeting sequence were stably expressed in the breast cancer cell line, MCF-7. The level of tyrosine phosphorylation of AF-2 was significantly elevated by the membrane localization. By mass-spectrometry analysis, alpha- and beta-tubulins and heat shock protein 70 were identified as the AF-1-associated proteins. Of these, tubulins are associated only with membrane-targeted AF-1.
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