PUBLICATION

Highly aneuploid zebrafish malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors have genetic alterations similar to human cancers

Authors
Zhang, G., Hoersch, S., Amsterdam, A., Whittaker, C.A., Lees, J.A., and Hopkins, N.
ID
ZDB-PUB-100929-25
Date
2010
Source
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America   107(39): 16940-16945 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Amsterdam, Adam, Hopkins, Nancy
Keywords
array comparative genomic hybridization, fgf8, met, Illumina, copy number alteration
Datasets
GEO:GSE23666
MeSH Terms
  • Aneuploidy*
  • Animals
  • Disease Models, Animal*
  • Fibroblast Growth Factors/genetics
  • Humans
  • Nerve Sheath Neoplasms/genetics*
  • Peripheral Nerves*
  • Ribosomal Proteins/genetics
  • Sequence Deletion
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53/genetics
  • Zebrafish/genetics*
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
PubMed
20837522 Full text @ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Abstract
Aneuploidy is a hallmark of human cancers, but most mouse cancer models lack the extensive aneuploidy seen in many human tumors. The zebrafish is becoming an increasingly popular model for studying cancer. Here we report that malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) that arise in zebrafish as a result of mutations in either ribosomal protein (rp) genes or in p53 are highly aneuploid. Karyotyping reveals that these tumors frequently harbor near-triploid numbers of chromosomes, and they vary in chromosome number from cell to cell within a single tumor. Using array comparative genomic hybridization, we found that, as in human cancers, certain fish chromosomes are preferentially overrepresented, whereas others are underrepresented in many MPNSTs. In addition, we obtained evidence for recurrent subchromosomal amplifications and deletions that may contain genes involved in cancer initiation or progression. These focal amplifications encompassed several genes whose amplification is observed in human tumors, including met, cyclinD2, slc45a3, and cdk6. One focal amplification included fgf6a. Increasing fgf signaling via a mutation that overexpresses fgf8 accelerated the onset of MPNSTs in fish bearing a mutation in p53, suggesting that fgf6a itself may be a driver of MPNSTs. Our results suggest that the zebrafish is a useful model in which to study aneuploidy in human cancer and in which to identify candidate genes that may act as drivers in fish and potentially also in human tumors.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Show all Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping