MULVDB.ORG

MuLV insertional mutagenesis is a model system for identifying genes that drive development of lymphoma and leukaemia... Infection of newborn mice with murine leukaemia virus (MuLV) leads to a viremia throughout the hematopoietic compartment. Mice develop immunological tolerance such that replication and superinfection continues throughout the lifetime of the animal. Integration of the proviral genomes leads to deregulation and disruption of nearby genes by a variety of mechanisms. After a period of months the accumulation of these insertion mutations leads to hematopoietic malignancies driven by a spectrum of genes including known human cancer drivers... By infecting mice that are predisposed to malignancies of a particular lineage or subtype, the spectrum of mutations identified can be skewed toward events that cooperate with the predisposing lesions.