Differential expression of a novel gene, WDNM1, in nonmetastatic rat mammary adenocarcinoma cells.

Subtractive hybridization was used to investigate differences in gene expression between a metastatic clone and nonmetastatic clone of the rat mammary adenocarcinoma line DMBA-8 which differ 100-fold in their metastatic behavior. Several differentially expressed highly homologous mRNAs (600 to 900 base pairs) were identified from the nonmetastatic line which are expressed at a level 20-fold higher than in the metastatic clone. Available sequence data show no homology to published gene sequences. There is no difference between the metastatic and nonmetastatic clones regarding DNA restriction fragment sizes or copy number of the gene. Expression of this newly described gene, named WDNM1, may be an important correlate of nonmetastasis in this tumor model.