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Identifying LRRC16B as an oncofetal gene with transforming enhancing capability using a combined bioinformatics and experimental approach

Oncogene volume 30, pages 654–667 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Oncofetal genes are expressed in embryos or fetuses, are downregulated or undetectable in adult tissues, and then re-expressed in tumors. Known oncofetal genes, such as AFP, GCB, FGF18, IMP-1 and SOX1, often have important clinical applications or pivotal biological functions. To find new oncofetal-like genes, we used the public information of expressed sequence tags to systematically analyze gene expression patterns and identified a novel oncofetal-like gene, LRRC16B. It increased the proliferation, anchorage-independent growth and tumorigenesis of transformed cells in xenografts, possibly through its effects on cyclin B1 protein levels. These findings exemplify the feasibility of using bioinformatics to find new oncofetal-like genes and suggest that more genes with important functional roles will be uncovered in the candidate gene list.

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Acknowledgements

This was supported by Grant NSC-95-2320-B-006-057-MY2 from the National Science Council, Taiwan, and Grant DOH99-TD-C-111-003 from the Department of Health, Taiwan. There is no competing financial interest in relation to this work.

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Author notes

  1. C-W Chiang, H-C Cheng and W-T Chang: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Basic Medical Science, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    C-C Hsu, C-W Chiang, H-C Cheng, W-T Chang, T-Y Lee, N-H Chow & C-L Ho

  2. Institute of Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    C-W Chiang, Z-H Wu, N-H Chow & C-L Ho

  3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan

    C-Y Chou

  4. Department of Pathology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan

    H-W Tsai, C-T Lee, N-H Chow & C-L Ho

  5. Department of Ophthalmology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    A Chao

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Correspondence to C-L Ho.

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Hsu, CC., Chiang, CW., Cheng, HC. et al. Identifying LRRC16B as an oncofetal gene with transforming enhancing capability using a combined bioinformatics and experimental approach. Oncogene 30, 654–667 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2010.451

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