Previous Article | Next Article 
Molecular and Cellular Biology, October 2002, p. 7204-7216, Vol. 22, No. 20
0270-7306/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/MCB.22.20.7204-7216.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Pax3-FKHR Knock-In Mice Show Developmental Aberrations but Do Not Develop Tumors
Irina Lagutina,1 Simon J. Conway,2 Jack Sublett,3 and Gerard C. Grosveld1*
Department of Genetics,1
Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee 38105,3
Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia 309122
Received 6 February 2002/
Returned for modification 19 June 2002/
Accepted 2 July 2002
Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma is a pediatric disease specified by the recurrent chromosome translocations t(2;13) and t(1;13). These translocations result in the formation of the PAX3-FKHR and PAX7-FKHR fusion genes, which are thought to play a causal role in the genesis of this disease. Although PAX3-FKHR exhibits transforming activity in immortalized fibroblast cell lines, a direct role of this fusion protein in tumorigenesis in vivo has not been shown. We determined whether expression of Pax3-FKHR in the mouse germ line would render these animals prone to the development of rhabdomyosarcomas. By targeting FKHR cDNA sequences into the Pax3 locus of embryonic stem cells, we used these cells to generate mice carrying a Pax3-FKHR knock-in allele. Despite low expression of the knock-in allele, heterozygous offspring of Pax3-FKHR chimeric mice showed developmental abnormalities. These included intraventricular septum defects, tricuspid valve insufficiency, and diaphragm defects, which caused congestive heart failure leading to perinatal death. In addition, Pax3-FKHR heterozygous offspring displayed malformations of some but not all hypaxial muscles. However, neither newborn heterozygous pups nor their chimeric parents showed any signs of malignancy. We conclude that the Pax3-FKHR allele causes lethal developmental defects in knock-in mice but might be insufficient to cause muscle tumors.
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Genetics, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 332 North Lauderdale, Memphis, TN 38105. Phone: (901) 495-2279. Fax: (901) 526-2907. E-mail:
gerard.grosveld{at}stjude.org.
Molecular and Cellular Biology, October 2002, p. 7204-7216, Vol. 22, No. 20
0022-538X/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/MCB.22.20.7204-7216.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Roeb, W., Boyer, A., Cavenee, W. K., Arden, K. C.
(2007). PAX3-FOXO1 controls expression of the p57Kip2 cell-cycle regulator through degradation of EGR1. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
104: 18085-18090
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Slater, O., Shipley, J.
(2007). Clinical relevance of molecular genetics to paediatric sarcomas. J. Clin. Pathol.
60: 1187-1194
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Chamberlain, J. S., Metzger, J., Reyes, M., Townsend, D., Faulkner, J. A.
(2007). Dystrophin-deficient mdx mice display a reduced life span and are susceptible to spontaneous rhabdomyosarcoma. FASEB J.
21: 2195-2204
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Merlino, G., Khanna, C.
(2007). Fishing for the origins of cancer. Genes Dev.
21: 1275-1279
[Full Text]
-
Galindo, R. L., Allport, J. A., Olson, E. N.
(2006). A Drosophila model of the rhabdomyosarcoma initiator PAX7-FKHR. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
103: 13439-13444
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Bois, P. R.J., Izeradjene, K., Houghton, P. J., Cleveland, J. L., Houghton, J. A., Grosveld, G. C.
(2005). FOXO1a acts as a selective tumor suppressor in alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. JCB
170: 903-912
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Keller, C., Arenkiel, B. R., Coffin, C. M., El-Bardeesy, N., DePinho, R. A., Capecchi, M. R.
(2004). Alveolar rhabdomyosarcomas in conditional Pax3:Fkhr mice: cooperativity of Ink4a/ARF and Trp53 loss of function. Genes Dev.
18: 2614-2626
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Baumann Kubetzko, F. B., di Paolo, C., Maag, C., Meier, R., Schafer, B. W., Betts, D. R., Stahel, R. A., Himmelmann, A.
(2004). The PAX5 oncogene is expressed in N-type neuroblastoma cells and increases tumorigenicity of a S-type cell line. Carcinogenesis
25: 1839-1846
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Relaix, F., Polimeni, M., Rocancourt, D., Ponzetto, C., Schafer, B. W., Buckingham, M.
(2003). The transcriptional activator PAX3-FKHR rescues the defects of Pax3 mutant mice but induces a myogenic gain-of-function phenotype with ligand-independent activation of Met signaling in vivo. Genes Dev.
17: 2950-2965
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Tran, H., Brunet, A., Griffith, E. C., Greenberg, M. E.
(2003). The Many Forks in FOXO's Road. Sci Signal
2003: re5-re5
[Abstract]
[Full Text]