Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

You don't need a backbone to carry a tumour suppressor gene

Nature Genetics volume 21, pages 147–148 (1999)Cite this article

Ever since those early, heady days when an orthologue of the proto-oncogene RAS was identified in yeast1, the conservation of cancer genes throughout evolution has proved enormously useful. Their study in model organisms—especially those lacking vertebrae—has provided exceptional insight into function. Consider the enormous success and popularity of the study of cell-cycle genes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the hedgehog/patched signalling pathway in Drosophila melanogaster and the CED family/BCL-2 apoptosis pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans. In most, if not all of these cases, however, the function of the cancer-gene orthologue is not associated with tumour development; instead it is involved in essential cellular or developmental functions, limiting the power of these models.

Despite this, the study of cancer per se in Drosophila has progressed steadily over the last century, albeit in relative obscurity: some 50 tumour-suppressor genes have been discovered in Drosophila, two dozen have been cloned and at least nine show clear homology to mammalian genes2. Due in part to anthropocentrism, these studies have not gained broad acceptance or notice in the mammalian cancer genetics community. How many cancer biologists click with killer of prune or bag of marbles? Perhaps at the heart of a prevalent skepticism lies the question: "Can flies really get cancer and is this relevant to human cancer?".

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: a, Lats deficiency leads to tumour formation in mice and flies; a tumour–suppressor function for human LATS has yet to be determined.
Figure 2: Lats is phosphorylated in early mitotic cells and unphosphorylated elsewhere.

References

  1. Gallwitz, D., Donath, C. & Sander, C. Nature 306, 704– 707 (1983).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Watson, K.L., Justice, R.W. & Bryant, P.J. J. Cell Sci. 18 (suppl.), 19 –33 (1994).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. St. John, M.A.R. et al. Nature Genet. 21, 177– 181 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Tao, W. et al. Nature Genet. 21, 182–186 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Xu, T., Wang, W., Zhang, S., Stewart, R.A. & Yu, W. Development 121, 1053– 1063 (1995).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Justice, R.W., Zilian, O., Woods, D.F., Noll, M. & Bryant, P.J. Genes Dev. 9, 534– 546 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Hanks, S.K., Quinn, A.M. & Hunter, T. Science 241, 42– 52 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Donehower, L.A. et al. Nature 356, 215–221 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Serrano, M. et al. Cell 85, 27–37 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Christopher J Kemp

Authors
  1. Christopher J Kemp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kemp, C. You don't need a backbone to carry a tumour suppressor gene. Nat Genet 21, 147–148 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/5922

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/5922

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing