Research

Myb proteins inhibit fibroblast transformation by v-Rel

Shu-ling Fu , Brigitte Ganter and Joseph S Lipsick

Departments of Pathology and Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, CA 94305-5324, USA

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Molecular Cancer 2006, 5:54doi:10.1186/1476-4598-5-54

Published:	2 November 2006

Abstract

Genes that cause cancer have been divided into two general classes – oncogenes that act in a dominant fashion to transform normal cells into a malignant state, and tumor suppressor genes that act in a dominant fashion to prevent such transformation. In this report, we demonstrate that both the v-myb retroviral oncogene, which causes leukemic transformation of hematopoietic cells, and the c-myb proto-oncogene can also function as inhibitors of fibroblast transformation by the v-rel oncogene. These results imply that the myb genes can function either as oncogenes or as tumor suppressors in different cellular contexts.