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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Screening for Melanoma Modifiers using a Zebrafish Autochthonous Tumor Model
Published on: November 13, 2012
A genomic screen identifies TYRO3 as a MITF regulator in melanoma
Shoutian Zhu1, Heiko Wurdak, Yan Wang
1The Skaggs Institute of Chemical Biology and the Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Abstract:
Malignant melanoma is the most aggressive form of cutaneous carcinoma, accounting for 75% of all deaths caused by skin cancers. Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) is a master gene regulating melanocyte development and functions as a "lineage addiction" oncogene in malignant melanoma. We have identified the receptor protein tyrosine kinase TYRO3 as an upstream regulator of MITF expression by a genome-wide gain-of-function cDNA screen and show that TYRO3 induces MITF-M expression in a SOX10-dependent manner in melanoma cells. Expression of TYRO3 is significantly elevated in human primary melanoma tissue samples and melanoma cell lines and correlates with MITF-M mRNA levels. TYRO3 overexpression bypasses BRAF(V600E)-induced senescence in primary melanocytes, inducing transformation of non-tumorigenic cell lines. Furthermore, TYRO3 knockdown represses cellular proliferation and colony formation in melanoma cells, and sensitizes them to chemotherapeutic agent-induced apoptosis; TYRO3 knockdown in melanoma cells also inhibits tumorigenesis in vivo. Taken together, these data indicate that TYRO3 may serve as a target for the development of therapeutic agents for melanoma.
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