Table 1.

Asymmetric cell division regulators and their role during cancer formation and progression

Gene	Chromosomal location	Genetic alteration and/or expression in human tumors	Cancer-associated phenotypes in in vivo mouse models
AURAK	20q13.2–q13.3	Amplified and overexpressed in diverse human tumors [194], including breast [195], ovarian [196], gastric [197], bladder [198], and pancreatic [199] cancers	Pharmacological inhibition in breast [200] and ovarian [201] cancer cells and siRNA-mediated depletion in laryngeal cancer cells [202] prevent metastasis upon xenotransplantation
CSPG4 (NG2)	15q24.2	Overexpressed in astrocytomas [129] and oligodendrogliomas [3]	Pericyte deficiencies in Cspg4 knockout mice lead to aberrant tumor vascularization [203]
DLG2	11q14.1	Localizes within a large common fragile site [204]. Expression downregulated in oligodendroglioma [3]	Not determined
HUGL-1	17p11.2	Gene loss in 75 % of colorectal cancers [205]. Reduced expression in melanoma, breast, lung, prostate [206], and ovarian cancers [207]	Lgl1 knockout mice have pre-cancerous rosette-like structures in the brain. Neural progenitor cells fail to differentiate and to exit the cell cycle [147]
HUGL-2	17q24–q25	Loss or aberrantly localized in gastric adenocarcinomas [208]. Reduced expression in colorectal and breast cancers [209]	Forced expression in breast cancer cell lines reduces their metastatic potential upon subcutaneous xenotransplantation [210]
MSI1	12q24.1–q24.31	Upregulated in oligodendrogliomas [3], astrocytomas [211], colorectal tumors [212], and endometrial cancers [213]	Msi1 knockdown reduces growth of xenografted glioblastoma [214] and colon adenocarcinoma cells [215]
MSI2	12q24.1–q24.31	Increased expression in CML [153]	Loss of function in HSCs expressing NUP98-HOXA9 reduces leukemia growth in vivo [153]
NUMB	14q24.3	Reduced protein levels in some mammary carcinomas [151], NSCLC [216] and blast crisis of CML [153]	Ectopic expression in HSCs transduced with BCR-ABL and NUP98-HOXA9 reduces the incidence and propagation of blast crisis in vivo [153]
PARD3	10p11.21	Reduced expression in melanoma, breast, lung, and bladder cancers [149]	In the presence of relevant oncogenic mutations, loss of Par3 favors formation of keratoacanthomas [150] and increases mammary tumor growth and metastasis [149]
PARD6A	16q22.1	Increased expression [217] or mis-localized [173] in low- and high-grade breast cancers	Expression of a dominant negative form in mammary carcinoma cells reduces incidence of metastases [166]
PLK1	16p12.2	Increased expression in several tumors, including NSCLC [218], gastric [219], ovarian [220], prostate [221], bladder [222], breast [223], head and neck [224] cancers, and gliomas [225]	siRNA-mediated depletion in bladder cancer [222] and GBM [226] cell lines and pharmacological inhibition in breast cancer [223] and glioma cells [226] impairs/delays tumor growth in xenograft models
PRKCI	2p21	Overexpressed in NSCLC [227], breast [228], ovarian [229], and prostate [230] cancers	Expression of a dominant negative form in lung cancer cells [231] and siRNA-mediated depletion in prostate cancer cells [230] reduce tumorigenicity in vivo. Required for Ras-mediated transformation of intestinal epithelial cells [168]
SCRIB1	8q24.3	Reduced expression or mis-localized in glioma [232]	Loss of Scrib predisposes to cMyc transformation in mammary epithelia [233]
TRIM3	11p15.5	Loss of heterozygosity in some gliomas [234]. Downregulated in a subset of gliomas [235], including oligodendrogliomas [3]	Knockdown increases incidence of PDGF-driven gliomas in p21-deficient mice [235]