The ups and downs of p53: understanding protein dynamics in single cells

Abstract

The complex web of regulation that surrounds the tumour suppressor p53 is well known, but few have considered the effect that this has on the dynamics of p53 itself. This forward-looking Perspective speculates on the insights that we might gain by examining the p53 dynamics in individual tumour cells. Cells living in a complex environment must constantly detect, process and appropriately respond to changing signals. Therefore, all cellular information processing is dynamic in nature. As a consequence, understanding the process of signal transduction often requires detailed quantitative analysis of dynamic behaviours. Here, we focus on the oscillatory dynamics of the tumour suppressor protein p53 as a model for studying protein dynamics in single cells to better understand its regulation and function.