The research, published yesterday in Science Advances, indicates that a sequence in the Na/K-ATPase, also known as the sodium pump, that is not involved in the ion pumping function of this protein is critical to stem cell differentiation and organogenesis across the animal kingdom.
“The goal of this study was to reveal a novel role of this protein in animal biology and physiology,” said first and corresponding author, Xiaoliang Wang, M.D., Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. “Embryonic development represents one of the most amazing processes of biology. Na/K-ATPase is prevalently expressed in every single cell in our body.”
The study builds upon the seminal work of the late Zijian Xie, Ph.D., who, along with collaborators, discovered the signaling and scaffolding function of the Na/K-ATPase in the late 1990s. Xie’s discovery has had tremendous applications in both cell biology and medicine and opened the door to this new area of research.
“In addition to potential relevance to human health and disease, which has been the focus of this research group, this particular work may be of critical importance to basic biology,” said contributing author Joseph I. Shapiro, M.D., dean of the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, who had been Xie’s primary research partner for the past two decades.
The full article may be viewed at https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/22/eaaw5851.