PUBLICATION

Oncogenic NRAS Cooperates with p53 Loss to Generate Melanoma in Zebrafish

Authors
Dovey, M., White, R.M., and Zon, L.I.
ID
ZDB-PUB-091215-28
Date
2009
Source
Zebrafish   6(4): 397-404 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Dovey, Michael, White, Richard M., Zon, Leonard I.
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Cell Transformation, Neoplastic/genetics
  • Cell Transformation, Neoplastic/metabolism*
  • Cell Transformation, Neoplastic/pathology
  • Disease Models, Animal*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
  • Genes, ras*
  • Humans
  • Melanoma/genetics
  • Melanoma/metabolism*
  • Melanoma/pathology
  • Mutation
  • Pigmentation
  • Skin Neoplasms/genetics
  • Skin Neoplasms/metabolism*
  • Skin Neoplasms/pathology
  • Transgenes
  • Tumor Suppressor Protein p53/metabolism*
  • Up-Regulation
  • Zebrafish/genetics
  • Zebrafish/metabolism*
PubMed
19954345 Full text @ Zebrafish
Abstract
NRAS mutations are a common oncogenic event in skin cancer, occurring frequently in congenital nevi and malignant melanoma. To study the role of NRAS in zebrafish, a transgenic approach was applied to generate fish that express human oncogenic NRAS(Q61K) under the control of the melanocyte-restricted mitfa promoter. By screening the progeny of the injected animals, two strains stably expressing the NRAS transgene were identified: Tg(mitfa:EGFP:NRAS(Q61K))(1) and Tg(mitfa:EGFP:NRAS(Q61K))(2). Stable expression of this transgene results in hyperpigmented fish displaying a complete ablation of the normal pigment pattern. Although oncogenic NRAS expression alone was found to be insufficient to promote tumor formation, loss of functional p53 was found to collaborate with NRAS expression in the genesis of melanoma. The tumors derived from these animals are variably pigmented and closely resemble human melanoma. Underscoring the pathological similarities between these tumors and human disease and suggesting that common pathways are similar in these models and human disease, gene set enrichment analysis performed on microarray data found that the upregulated genes from zebrafish melanomas are highly enriched in human tumor samples. This work characterizes two zebrafish melanoma models that will be useful tools for the study of melanoma pathogenesis.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping