Transcription profiling of zebrafish tumors

The goal of this experiment was to compare the genes expressed in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) that arise in zebrafish as a result of homozygous mutation of the p53 gene or heterozygous mutation of several different ribosomal protein (rp) mutations. Since MPNSTs arise very rarely in wild type zebrafish, it seemed a possibility that p53 and rps may in fact be functioning in similar pathways. The tumors arising from the different mutations had been previously classified as similar by histology, thus the goal of the array experiments was to establish if any molecular signatures could be found that could delineate the p53 from the rp MPNSTs. Experiment Overall Design: The mRNAs from 6 different MPNSTs arising from rp mutations (3 from rpL35, 1 from rpL14, 1 from rpS5, 1 from rpS11) were compared to mRNA from 3 MPNSTs arising from the p53 M214K/M214K mutation. These were also compared to the mRNA from 2 spontaneously forming seminoma tumors from random genetic backgrounds.