Ewing's sarcoma, a malignant bone tumor of children and young adults, is a member of the small-round-blue-cell tumor family. Ewing's sarcoma family tumors (ESFTs), which include peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNETs), are characterized by chromosomal translocations that generate fusions between the EWS gene and ETS-family transcription factors, most commonly FLI1. The EWS-FLI1 fusion oncoprotein represents an attractive therapeutic target for treatment of Ewing's sarcoma. The cell of origin of ESFT and the molecular mechanisms by which EWS-FLI1 mediates tumorigenesis remain unknown, and few animal models of Ewing's sarcoma exist. Here, we report the use of zebrafish as a vertebrate model of EWS-FLI1 function and tumorigenesis. Mosaic expression of the human EWS-FLI1 fusion protein in zebrafish caused the development of tumors with histology strongly resembling that of human Ewing's sarcoma. The incidence of tumors increased in a p53 mutant background, suggesting that the p53 pathway suppresses EWS-FLI1-driven tumorigenesis. Gene expression profiling of the zebrafish tumors defined a set of genes that might be regulated by EWS-FLI1, including the zebrafish ortholog of a crucial EWS-FLI1 target gene in humans. Stable zebrafish transgenic lines expressing EWS-FLI1 under the control of the heat-shock promoter exhibit altered embryonic development and defective convergence and extension, suggesting that EWS-FLI1 interacts with conserved developmental pathways. These results indicate that functional targets of EWS-FLI1 that mediate tumorigenesis are conserved from zebrafish to human and provide a novel context in which to study the function of this fusion oncogene.
Pubmed ID: 21979944 RIS Download
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Web based gene set analysis toolkit designed for functional genomic, proteomic, and large-scale genetic studies from which large number of gene lists (e.g. differentially expressed gene sets, co-expressed gene sets etc) are continuously generated. WebGestalt incorporates information from different public resources and provides a way for biologists to make sense out of gene lists. This version of WebGestalt supports eight organisms, including human, mouse, rat, worm, fly, yeast, dog, and zebrafish.
View all literature mentionsBioinformatics resource system including web server and web service for functional annotation and enrichment analyses of gene lists. Consists of comprehensive knowledgebase and set of functional analysis tools. Includes gene centered database integrating heterogeneous gene annotation resources to facilitate high throughput gene functional analysis.
View all literature mentionsSoftware package for interpreting gene expression data. Used for interpretation of a large-scale experiment by identifying pathways and processes.
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