BRESSAC-DE PAILLERETS , Brigitte

A proportion of melanoma-prone individuals in both familial and non-familial contexts has been shown to carry inactivating mutations in either CDKN2A or, rarely, CDK4. CDKN2A is a complex locus that encodes two unrelated proteins from alternately spliced transcripts that are read in different frames. The alpha transcript (exons 1α, 2, and 3)...

BACKGROUND: Congenital secondary erythrocytoses are due to deregulation of hypoxia inducible factor resulting in overproduction of erythropoietin. The most common germline mutation identified in the hypoxia signaling pathway is the Arginine 200-Tryptophan mutant of the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor gene, resulting in Chuvash polycythemia....

BACKGROUND:MITF encodes an oncogenic lineage-specific transcription factor in which a germline mutation ( MITFE318K ) was identified in human patients predisposed to both nevus formation and, among other tumor types, melanoma. The molecular mechanisms underlying the oncogenic activity of MITF E318K remained uncharacterized.METHODS:Here, we...

The classic model of tumor suppression implies that malignant transformation requires full "two-hit"inactivation of a tumor-suppressor gene. However, more recent work in mice has led to the proposal of a"continuum" model that involves more fluid concepts such as gene dosage-sensitivity and tissue specificity.Mutations in the tumor-suppressor...