Meacham et al. conducted a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) screen for genes that affect B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL) progression and found that many genes only became important for tumour progression once cells were transplanted in vivo, indicating the importance of the microenvironment. One of these genes encoded PHD finger protein 6 (PHF6); Phf6 shRNAs were selected against in vivo but not in vitro, suggesting that PHF6 promotes B-ALL progression in mice. Interestingly, inactivating mutations of PHF6 are common in T-cell ALL, so this gene might have opposite functions depending on the lineage from which the malignancy arose.
References
Meacham, C. E. et al. A genome-scale in vivo loss-of-function screen identifies Phf6 as a lineage-specific regulator of leukemia cell growth. Genes Dev. 29, 483–488 (2015)
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Seton-Rogers, S. Putting leukaemia genes in context. Nat Rev Cancer 15, 198 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3938
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3938
