Biological functions of mammalian Nit1, the counterpart of the invertebrate NitFhit Rosetta stone protein, a possible tumor suppressor.

The "Rosetta Stone" hypothesis proposes that the existence of a fusion protein in some organisms predicts that the separate polypeptides function in the same biochemical pathway in other organisms and may physically interact. In Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans, NitFhit protein is composed of two domains, a fragile histidine triad homolog and a bacterial and plant nitrilase homolog. We assessed the biological effects of mammalian Nit1 expression in comparison with Fhit and observed that: 1) Nit1 expression was observed in most normal tissues and overlapped partially with Fhit expression; 2) Nit1-deficient mouse kidney cells exhibited accelerated proliferation, resistance to DNA damage stress, and increased cyclin D1 expression; 3) cyclin D1 was up-regulated in Nit1 null mammary gland and skin; 4) Nit1 overexpression induced caspase-dependent apoptosis in vitro; and 5) Nit1 allele deficiency led to increased incidence of N-nitrosomethylbenzylamine-induced murine forestomach tumors. Thus, the biological effects of Nit1 expression are similar to Fhit effects. Adenoviruses carrying recombinant NIT1 and FHIT induced apoptosis in Fhit- and Nit1-deficient cells, respectively, suggesting that Nit1-Fhit interaction is not essential for function of either protein. The results suggest that Nit1 and Fhit share tumor suppressor signaling pathways, while localization of the NIT1 gene at a stable, rather than fragile, chromosome site explains the paucity of gene alterations and in frequent loss of expression of the NIT1 gene in human malignancies.