Mutations of mitotic checkpoint genes in human cancers.
Genetic instability was one of the first characteristics to be postulated to underlie neoplasia. Such genetic instability occurs in two different forms. In a small fraction of colorectal and some other cancers, defective repair of mismatched bases results in an increased mutation rate at the nucleotide level and consequent widespread microsatellite instability. In most colorectal cancers, and probably in many other cancer types, a chromosomal instability (CIN) leading to an abnormal chromosome number (aneuploidy) is observed. The physiological and molecular bases of this pervasive abnormality are unknown. Here we show that CIN is consistently associated with the loss of function of a mitotic checkpoint. Moreover, in some cancers displaying CIN the loss of this checkpoint was associated with the mutational inactivation of a human homologue of the yeast BUB1 gene; BUB1 controls mitotic checkpoints and chromosome segregation in yeast. The normal mitotic checkpoints of cells displaying microsatellite instability become defective upon transfer of mutant hBUB1 alleles from either of two CIN cancers.
Cahill
D P
DP
The Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, Program in Human Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21231, USA.
Lengauer
C
C
Yu
J
J
Riggins
G J
GJ
Willson
J K
JK
Markowitz
S D
SD
Kinzler
K W
KW
Vogelstein
B
B
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000782:Aneuploidy; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D002453:Cell Cycle; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D003703:Demecolcine / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D008938:Mitosis / Q000235:genetics*; D008940:Mitotic Index; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D015739:Nocodazole / Q000494:pharmacology; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000235:genetics; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D014162:Transfection; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D011494:Protein Kinases; C584277:BUB1 protein, human; C090464:Bub1 spindle checkpoint protein; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D015739:Nocodazole; D003703:Demecolcine