Human colorectal cancers (CRCs) display a large number of genetic and epigenetic alterations, some of which are causally involved in tumorigenesis (drivers) and others that have little functional impact (passengers). To help distinguish between these two classes of alterations, we used a transposonbased genetic screen in mice to identify candidate genes for CRC. Mice harboring mutagenic Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposons were crossed to mice expressing SB transposase in gastrointestinal tract epithelium. Most of the offspring developed intestinal lesions including intraepithelial neoplasia, adenomas, and adenocarcinomas. Analysis of over 16,000 transposon insertions identified 77 candidate CRC genes, 60 of which are mutated and/or dysregulated in human CRC and thus are most likely to drive tumorigenesis. These genes include APC, PTEN and SMAD4. The screen also * Publisher's Disclaimer: This manuscript has been accepted for publication in Science. This version has not undergone final editing.Please refer to the complete version of record at http://www.sciencemag.org/. Their manuscript may not be reproduced or used in any manner that does not fall within the fair use provisions of the

Summary Eukaryotic cells license far more origins than are actually used for DNA replication, thereby generating a large number of dormant origins. Accumulating evidence suggests that such origins play a role in chromosome stability and tumor suppression, though the underlying mechanism is largely unknown. Here, we show that a loss of dormant origins results in an increased number of stalled replication forks even in unchallenged S phase in primary mouse fibroblasts derived from embryos homozygous for the Mcm4Chaos3 allele. We found that this allele reduces the stability of the MCM2-7 complex, but confers normal helicase activity in vitro. Despite the activation of multiple fork recovery pathways, replication intermediates in these cells persist into M phase, increasing the number of abnormal anaphase cells with lagging chromosomes and/or acentric fragments. These findings suggest that dormant origins constitute a major pathway for stalled fork recovery, contributing to faithful chromosome segregation and tumor suppression.

Here we describe a Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposition system that utilizes a conditional SB transposase allele, which can be activated by Cre recombinase to drive the transposition of a mutagenic transposon in virtually any tissue and control the type of cancer produced. To demonstrate the potential of this system for modeling cancer in mice, we used it to screen for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) associated genes in mice by specifically limiting SB transposition to the liver. Among 8,060 non-redundant insertions subsequently cloned from 68 tumor nodules we identified 19 highly significant candidate disease loci, which encode genes like EGFR and MET that are known HCC genes and others like UBE2H that are not strongly implicated in HCC but represent potential new therapeutic targets for treating this neoplasm. With these improvements, transposon-based insertional mutagenesis now offers great potential for better understanding the cancer genome and for identifying new targets for therapeutic development.

Background-The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon system is a non-viral vector system that can integrate precise sequences into chromosomes. We evaluated the SB transposon system as a tool for gene therapy of mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) types I and VII.

Somatic mutations of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene are initiating events in the majority of sporadic colon cancers. A common characteristic of such tumors is reduction in the number of goblet cells that produce the mucin MUC2, the principal component of intestinal mucus. Consistent with these observations, we showed that Muc2 deficiency results in the spontaneous development of tumors along the entire gastrointestinal tract, independently of deregulated Wnt signaling. To dissect the complex interaction between Muc2 and Apc in intestinal tumorigenesis and to elucidate the mechanisms of tumor formation in Muc2 À/À mice, we crossed

Coexpression with FAH is an effective technique for lifelong expression of transgenes in adult hepatocytes with applicability to a wide variety of genetic studies in the liver.

The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon system has been used as a somatic mutagen to identify candidate cancer genes. In previous studies, efficient leukemia/lymphoma formation on an otherwise wild-type genetic background occurred in mice undergoing whole-body mobilization of transposons, but was accompanied by high levels of embryonic lethality. To explore the utility of SB for large-scale cancer gene discovery projects, we have generated mice that carry combinations of different transposon and transposase transgenes. We have identified a transposon/transposase combination that promotes highly penetrant leukemia/lymphoma formation on an otherwise wild-type genetic background, yet does not cause embryonic lethality. Infiltrating gliomas also occurred at lower penetrance in these mice. SB-induced or accelerated tumors do not harbor large numbers of chromosomal amplifications or deletions, indicating that transposon mobilization likely promotes tumor formation by insertional mutagenesis of cancer genes, and not by promoting wide-scale genomic instability. Cloning of transposon insertions from lymphomas/ leukemias identified common insertion sites at known and candidate novel cancer genes. These data indicate that a high mutagenesis rate can be achieved using SB without high levels of embryonic lethality or genomic instability. Furthermore, the SB system could be used to identify new genes involved in lymphomagenesis/leukemogenesis. [Cancer Res 2009;69(21):8429-37]

Multiple investigations of the effects of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor γ (PPARγ) ligands on colon cancer have produced contradictory results. While some studies demonstrated increased numbers of colonic polyps in ApcMin/+ mice treated with various thiazolidinedione (TZD) PPARγ ligands, others reported amelioration of tumor multiplicity and progression in both ApcMin/+ mice and in mice with chemically‐induced colon cancer. Here, we addressed the role of PPARγ in murine intestinal tumorigenesis using gene knockout methodology. We found that either heterozygous or homozygous intestinal‐specific PPARγ deficiency enhanced the number of ApcMin/+ tumors in both the small intestine and colon, especially in the colon, where PPARγ deficiency also modulated tumor incidence. Gender significantly affected tumor multiplicity independent of PPARγ genotype. Female ApcMin/+ mice developed more tumors in the small intestine and more tumors overall, whereas male ApcMin/+ mice developed more tumors in the colon. Nevertheless, intestinal PPARγ deficiency enhanced tumorigenesis irrespective of gender. Our results suggest that PPARγ functions as a tumor resistance factor in the mouse intestine and warrant further investigation of the PPARγ‐dependent and independent actions of TZDs in cancer. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.