Absence of PTEN/MMAC1 pseudogene in mice

The PTEN gene encodes a phosphatase that acts as a tumor-suppressor gene and is mutated in a variety of human cancers. Alterations of the PTEN gene in these tumor samples were identified using exon-by-exon analysis of the gene using single-stranded conformational polymorphism or direct sequencing of PTEN cDNA. However, in humans, mutational analysis of a PTEN cDNA template can produce false results because of a highly conserved PTEN processed pseudogene that shares more than 98% homology with the coding region of functional PTEN. PTEN-knockout mice develop tumors, suggesting that mouse tumor models are useful in vivo model systems to study PTEN function. Any mutational analysis of mouse PTEN cDNA may also produce false results if mice contain a highly conserved PTEN pseudogene. In this paper, we demonstrate the absence of any PTEN pseudogene in the mouse and discuss the significance of this observation for the mutational studies of the PTEN gene in mouse tumor models.