Beclin 1

BECN1 (Beclin 1) is a coiled-coil protein that has been implicated as an inhibitor of tumorigenesis. BECN1, which associates with Bcl-2, plays a significant role in autophagy. Autophagy is the degradation of cellular proteins in the lysosomes, and when this pathway is suppressed, cell growth is deregulated. Autophagy is controlled by the same signal transduction pathway that induces the phosphorylation of the Ribosomal Protein S6, and both are mediated via amino acids. BECN1 expression in various carcinoma cell lines such as MCF7 is low, whereas it is ubiquitously expressed in normal breast tissue. In transfected MCF7 cells, BECN1 complements autophagocytosis and, subsequently, inhibits cellular proliferation. Additionally, BECN1 shares structural similarity to the yeast autophagy gene product, Apg6, and was one of the first mammalian proteins discovered to mediate autophagy.