Publication Date:
2011-01-06
Description:
Model organisms such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster can help to elucidate the molecular basis of complex diseases such as cancer. Mutations in the Drosophila gene lethal (3) malignant brain tumor cause malignant growth in the larval brain. Here we show that l(3)mbt tumors exhibited a soma-to-germline transformation through the ectopic expression of genes normally required for germline stemness, fitness, or longevity. Orthologs of some of these genes were also expressed in human somatic tumors. In addition, inactivation of any of the germline genes nanos, vasa, piwi, or aubergine suppressed l(3)mbt malignant growth. Our results demonstrate that germline traits are necessary for tumor growth in this Drosophila model and suggest that inactivation of germline genes might have tumor-suppressing effects in other species.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Janic, Ana -- Mendizabal, Leire -- Llamazares, Salud -- Rossell, David -- Gonzalez, Cayetano -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2010 Dec 24;330(6012):1824-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1195481.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Cell Division Group, Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB-Barcelona), PCB, c/Baldiri Reixac 10-12, Barcelona, Spain.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21205669" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Argonaute Proteins
;
Brain/growth & development/metabolism
;
Brain Neoplasms/*genetics/pathology
;
*Cell Transformation, Neoplastic
;
DEAD-box RNA Helicases/genetics/metabolism
;
DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics/metabolism
;
Disease Models, Animal
;
Drosophila Proteins/genetics/metabolism
;
*Drosophila melanogaster/genetics/growth & development/metabolism
;
Gene Expression Profiling
;
*Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
;
*Genes, Insect
;
Genes, Tumor Suppressor
;
Germ Cells/*physiology
;
Humans
;
MicroRNAs/genetics/metabolism
;
Models, Animal
;
Neoplasm Transplantation
;
Peptide Initiation Factors/genetics/metabolism
;
RNA, Small Interfering/genetics/metabolism
;
RNA-Binding Proteins/genetics/metabolism
;
RNA-Induced Silencing Complex/genetics/metabolism
;
Transplantation, Homologous
;
Up-Regulation
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
