Table 2.

Cell competition-related genes associated with cancer.

Gene	Organism/Tissue	Function	Role in Cell Competition	References
Jak2	Human bone marrow	Tyrosine kinase in the JAK/STAT pathway	A gain-of-function mutation in human Jak2V617F causes bone marrow cells to outcompete wild-type cells via increased cell cycling in a competitive transplantation assay.	[122]
RAS	Mammalian epithelia in vitro and in vivo	Kinase regulating growth	Epithelial cells over-expressing RASG12V—a gain-of-function mutation—are outcompeted by wild-type epithelia in EDAC.	[123]
Tp53	Mammalian epithelia in vitro and in vivo	Tumor suppressor	Epithelial cells expressing a dominant-negative Tp53 are outcompeted by wild-type epithelia in a process termed epithelial defense against cancer (EDAC).	[125]
PIK3CA	Mammalian esophagus	Catalytic subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)	Esophageal epithelial cells heterozygous for the gain-of-function mutation Pik3CAH1047R/+ outcompete wild-type esophageal cells via biased cell fate toward proliferation.	[121]
APC	Mammalian intestine	Tumor suppressor	APC-mutant intestinal stem cell (ISC) clones cause wild-type ISCs to differentiate, thereby outcompeting them and leading to intestinal tumor initiation.	[44,45]
YAP	Mammalian intestine	Growth-promoting factor in the Hippo pathway	Epithelial cells over-expressing YAP5SA—a gain-of-function mutation—are outcompeted by wild-type epithelia in EDAC.	[124]
YAP	Mammalian liver	Growth-promoting factor in the Hippo pathway	Elevating YAP activity in hepatocytes through the 5SA mutation can drive liver tumor growth, if YAP activity is not higher in neighboring hepatocytes.	[126]
Glial cell derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF)	Mammalian testis	Secreted TGF-β ligand which is required for SSC niche maintenance	Misexpression in SSCs produces malignant tumors with germline markers.	[183]