Rapid screen of human genes for relevance to cancer using fission yeast.
A total of 437 human full-length cDNAs isolated by microarray analysis of liver and/or gastric cancer tissues were evaluated for their relevance to cancer using the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Overexpression of 161 human cDNAs in S. pombe caused growth inhibition and/or morphological changes, which can be considered as cancer-related phenotypes of S. pombe. Sixteen genes causing growth defects and morphological changes at the same time were chosen to validate their ostensible oncogenic properties. They were highly expressed in liver and/or gastric cancer cell lines. Also, when the mouse embryonic fibroblast cell type NIH3T3 was transfected with these genes, the proliferation rates of cells were increased by 32% to 120%. This study demonstrates that fission yeast can be used as an advantageous and powerful tool for the rapid screening of human genes relevant to cancer. Furthermore, the human genes screened can be tested further as diagnostic markers and potential therapeutic targets for liver and stomach cancers. They also can be studied further for the elucidation of mechanisms involved in carcinogenesis.
Chung
Kyung-Sook
KS
Laboratory of Human Genome, KRIBB, Daejeon, Korea.
Jang
Young-Joo
YJ
Kim
Nam-Soon
NS
Park
Sun-Yong
SY
Choi
Shin-Jung
SJ
Kim
Ji-Youn
JY
Ahn
Ji-Hee
JH
Lee
Hyun-Ji
HJ
Lim
Ji-Hyun
JH
Song
Ju-Hyun
JH
Ji
Jae-Hoon
JH
Oh
Jung-Hwa
JH
Song
Kyung Bin
KB
Yoo
Hyang-Sook
HS
Won
Misun
M
D000818:Animals; D052138:Genes, Neoplasm; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics*