Abstract
Recently, constitutively active mutants of MEK (MAP/ERK kinase) were shown to be capable of transforming cells to tumorigenicity suggesting that MEK can function as a dominant oncogene and potentially play a role in human carcinogenesis. Human lung cancer cells exhibit mutations in other components of the MAP kinase signaling pathway such as the Her-2/neu and ras oncogenes. Thus, the coding sequences of both MEK-1 and MEK-2 cDNAs from human lung cancer cell lines were screened by single strand conformation polymorphism analysis and DNA sequencing for alterations in these two genes. In 37 lung cancer cell lines we found: an allelic variant in MEK-1 cDNA, nt 783 G→A, (no amino acid change); a MEK-2 cDNA change (nt 977 C→T mutation leading to 298 Pro→Leu change); a MEK-2 cDNA change nt 537 C→T (no amino acid change); and a frequent MEK-2 cDNA germline polymorphism nt 744, A→C (no amino acid change) with an allele frequency of 0.5 for each form. These results suggest that mutations in the MEK-1 and MEK-2 gene occur at a very low frequency in human lung cancer.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 50 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $5.18 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bansal, A., Ramirez, R. & Minna, J. Mutation analysis of the coding sequences of MEK-1 and MEK-2 genes in human lung cancer cell lines. Oncogene 14, 1231–1234 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1200947
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1200947
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
MEK1 and MEK2 inhibitors and cancer therapy: the long and winding road
Nature Reviews Cancer (2015)
-
Constitutive activation of the 41-/43-kDa mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway in human tumors
Oncogene (1999)