Truncation of the tumour suppressor adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) constitutively activates the Wnt/b-catenin signalling pathway. This event constitutes the primary transforming event in sporadic colorectal cancer in humans. Moreover, humans or mice carrying germline truncating mutations in APC develop large numbers of intestinal adenomas. Here, we report that zebrafish that are heterozygous for a truncating APC mutation spontaneously develop intestinal, hepatic and pancreatic neoplasias that are highly proliferative, accumulate b-catenin and express Wnt target genes. Treatment with the chemical carcinogen 7,12-dimethylbenz [a]anthracene accelerates the induction of these lesions. These observations establish apc-mutant zebrafish as a bona fide model for the study of digestive tract cancer.

The viral integrase (IN) is an essential protein for HIV-1 replication. IN inserts the viral dsDNA into the host chromosome, thereby aided by the cellular co-factor LEDGF/p75. Recently a new class of integrase inhibitors was described: allosteric IN inhibitors (ALLINIs). Although designed to interfere with the IN-LEDGF/p75 interaction to block HIV DNA integration during the early phase of HIV-1 replication, the major impact was surprisingly found on the process of virus maturation during the late phase, causing a reverse transcription defect upon infection of target cells. Virus particles produced in the presence of an ALLINI are misformed with the ribonucleoprotein located outside the virus core. Virus assembly and maturation are highly orchestrated and regulated processes in which several viral proteins and RNA molecules closely interact. It is therefore of interest to study whether ALLINIs have unpredicted pleiotropic effects on these RNA-related processes. We confirm that the ALLINI BI-D inhibits virus replication and that the produced virus is non-infectious. Furthermore, we show that the wild-type level of HIV-1 genomic RNA is packaged in virions and these genomes are in a dimeric state. The tRNAlys3 primer for reverse transcription was properly placed on this genomic RNA and could be extended ex vivo. In addition, the packaged reverse transcriptase enzyme was fully active when extracted from virions. As the RNA and enzyme components for reverse transcription are properly present in virions produced in the presence of BI-D, the inhibition of reverse transcription is likely to reflect the mislocalization of the components in the aberrant virus particle.

Packaging of the eukaryotic genome into higher order chromatin structures is tightly related to gene expression. Pericentromeric heterochromatin is typified by accumulations of heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1), methylation of histone H3 at lysine 9 (MeH3K9) and global histone deacetylation. HP1 interacts with chromatin by binding to MeH3K9 through the chromodomain (CD). HP1 dimerizes with itself and binds a variety of proteins through its chromoshadow domain. We have analyzed at the single cell level whether HP1 lacking its functional CD is able to induce heterochromatinization in vivo. We used a lac-operator array-based system in mammalian cells to target EGFP-lac repressor tagged truncated HP1alpha and HP1beta to a lac operator containing gene-amplified chromosome region in living cells. After targeting truncated HP1alpha or HP1beta we observe enhanced tri-MeH3K9 and recruitment of endogenous HP1alpha and HP1beta to the chromosome region. We show that CD-less HP1alpha can induce chromatin condensation, whereas the effect of truncated HP1beta is less pronounced. Our results demonstrate that after lac repressor-mediated targeting, HP1alpha and HP1beta without a functional CD are able to induce heterochromatinization.