have these researchers been working too many hours-- a new met producing gene "hunk"

[Lani]

(replace "gene" above with kinase, a type of enzyme which is a type of protein)--hard to edit titles, it seems!

The Snf1-related kinase, Hunk, is essential for mammary tumor metastasis.

Wertheim GB, Yang TW, Pan TC, Ramne A, Liu Z, Gardner HP, Dugan KD, Kristel P, Kreike B, van de Vijver MJ, Cardiff RD, Reynolds C, Chodosh LA.
Departments of Cancer Biology, Cell and Developmental Biology, and Medicine, Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6160.
We previously identified a SNF1/AMPK-related protein kinase, Hunk, from a mammary tumor arising in an MMTV-neu transgenic mouse. The function of this kinase is unknown. Using targeted deletion in mice, we now demonstrate that Hunk is required for the metastasis of c-myc-induced mammary tumors, but is dispensable for normal development. Reconstitution experiments revealed that Hunk is sufficient to restore the metastatic potential of Hunk-deficient tumor cells, as well as defects in migration and invasion, and does so in a manner that requires its kinase activity. Consistent with a role for this kinase in the progression of human cancers, the human homologue of Hunk is overexpressed in aggressive subsets of carcinomas of the ovary, colon, and breast. In addition, a murine gene expression signature that distinguishes Hunk-wild type from Hunk-deficient mammary tumors predicts clinical outcome in women with breast cancer in a manner consistent with the pro-metastatic function of Hunk in mice. These findings identify a direct role for Hunk kinase activity in metastasis and establish an in vivo function for this kinase.
PMID: 19717424 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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Developmental role of the SNF1-related kinase Hunk in pregnancy-induced changes in the mammary gland.
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[Genomics. 2000]
Ca

[Rich66]

For those who are "Hunk deficient", excellent news