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A bumper crop of cancer genes

Nature Genetics volume 23, pages 253–254 (1999)Cite this article

Although genetics can provide an insight into the underpinnings of a biological process, it typically does so one gene at a time. Genomics, on the other hand, provides a comprehensive picture of a given phenomenon—but it can leave one overwhelmed with information and searching for direction. Both approaches have been used to study cancer, but they have remained fairly separate. Until now, that is. As concepts and technologies mature, experiments can be designed to integrate more fully the merits of genetics and genomics, especially in the mouse. With its long history of genetics, the relative ease with which its genome can be manipulated, and the growing repository of sequences and detailed genetic maps, this model organism is at the nexus of such interdisciplinary research.

On page 348 of this issue, Jiayin Li and colleagues1 provide an impressive example of a powerful genetics–genomics approach for identifying candidate cancer genes in mouse leukaemia models. Their method involves infecting mice with slow-transforming retroviruses that can accelerate the development of leukaemia without being oncogenic themselves. Random integration of viral DNA into the host genome occasionally activates an oncogene or, less commonly, disrupts the function of a tumour-suppressor gene—in both cases leading to tumour development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Adult Oncology and Genetics, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Ronald A DePinho

  2. Department of Biology and Center for Cancer Research, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA

    Tyler Jacks

Authors
  1. Ronald A DePinho
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  2. Tyler Jacks
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DePinho, R., Jacks, T. A bumper crop of cancer genes. Nat Genet 23, 253–254 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/15423

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