Mutator mutations enhance tumorigenic efficiency across fitness landscapes.

Abstract excerpt

BACKGROUND: Tumorigenesis requires multiple genetic changes. Mutator mutations are mutations that increase genomic instability, and according to the mutator hypothesis, accelerate tumorigenesis by facilitating oncogenic mutations. Alternatively, repeated lineage selection and expansion without increased mutation frequency may explain observed cancer incidence. Mutator lineages also risk increased deleterious...

Topics

• Animals
• Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
• Environment
• Genes, Bacterial
• Genetic Predisposition to Disease
• Humans
• Mice
• Models, Genetic
• Models, Statistical
• Models, Theoretical
• Mutation
• Neoplasms