Basal-like breast cancer (BBC) is a subtype of breast cancer with poor prognosis [1][2][3] . Inherited mutations of BRCA1, a cancer susceptibility gene involved in double-strand DNA break (DSB) repair, lead to breast cancers that are nearly always of the BBC subtype [3][4][5] ; however, the precise molecular lesions and oncogenic consequences of BRCA1 dysfunction are poorly understood. Here we show that heterozygous inactivation of the tumor suppressor gene Pten leads to the formation of basal-like mammary tumors in mice, and that loss of PTEN expression is significantly associated with the BBC subtype in human sporadic and BRCA1-associated hereditary breast cancers. In addition, we identify frequent gross PTEN mutations, involving intragenic chromosome breaks, inversions, deletions and micro copy number aberrations, specifically in BRCA1-deficient tumors. These data provide an example of a specific and recurrent Correspondence should be addressed to R.P. (rep15@columbia.edu). 14 These authors contributed equally to this work. AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS L.H.S., S.K.G.-S., R.P. and Å.B conceived and designed the study; L.H.S., S.K.G.-S., J.S., G.J., K.H., S.K., J.V.-C., H.O., T.S., L.M., S.P.E., H.H., R.P. and Å.B. collected the samples; L.H.S., K.L., M.J., L.M., T.L., M.S., J.I. and H.H. performed and analyzed immunohistochemistry experiments; L.H.S. and C.P. designed and performed methylation analyses; L.H.S., C.P., M.M. and K.H. performed nucleotide sequencing experiments; L.H.S., J.S., G.J. and K.H. performed and analyzed aCGH experiments; L.H.S., M.M.P., S.S. and V.V.V.S.M. designed and performed FISH experiments; L.H.S., S.K.G.-S. and M.K. performed statistical analyses; R.P. and Å.B. supervised the study; and L.H.S. wrote the paper with assistance from R.P. and Å.B. and input from all coauthors.Note: Supplementary information is available on the Nature Genetics website. [1][2][3][4][5] . Of these, basal-like breast cancer (BBC) comprises 10-20% of all breast cancer and is one of the subtypes with the worst prognosis 2-5 . The term BBC was coined because these tumors express cytokeratin markers typical of basally oriented epithelial cells of the normal mammary gland, such as CK5, CK14 and CK17 (refs. 1,3,5 ). In addition to having characteristic cytokeratin expression, BBCs are highly proliferative, poorly differentiated and genomically unstable, and they pose clinical challenges because they rarely express the three most common therapeutically targeted 'Achilles' heels' of breast cancer: the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor and HER2 receptor (refs. 1,3,5,7 ).Intriguingly, breast tumors initiated by an inherited mutation of BRCA1 are nearly always basal-like 3,5 . BRCA1 dysfunction is thought to be tumorigenic primarily owing to defective BRCA1-dependent DSB repair, which precipitates an accumulation of secondary mutations 10 ; however, only general genomic patterns at relatively low resolution have been described (reviewed in ref. 5 ). Despite these advances in delineating BBC, the molecu...