Genetic mapping of cancer susceptibility/resistance loci in the mouse.

Genetic linkage experiments using crosses between mouse inbred strains with an inherited predisposition and resistance to lung cancer make it possible to investigate the genetics of the complex inheritance of susceptibility and resistance to lung cancer. We have previously mapped a major locus (pulmonary adenoma susceptibility 1, Pas1) affecting inherited predisposition to lung cancer in mice onto chromosome 6, near Kras2. Appropriate crosses that include Pas1/+ mice provide a model system for identifying loci that can modify the lung cancer predisposition phenotype caused by Pas1. Using this approach, we mapped the pulmonary adenoma resistance 1 (Par1) locus on to mouse chromosome 11; this locus selectively inhibits lung tumor development in Pas1/+ animals and therefore behaves like a modulator gene of Pas1. More recently, we have mapped lung tumor modifier loci specifically affecting the initiation and progression of lung cancer. Thus experimental models provide an essential tool for the mapping of lung cancer susceptibility/resistance genes and for the subsequent cloning of candidate genes.