Protein-tyrosine phosphatase epsilon. An isoform specifically expressed in mouse mammary tumors initiated by v-Ha-ras OR neu.

Transgenic mice that overexpress v-Ha-ras, c-myc, c-neu or int-2 proto-oncogenes in the mammary epithelium develop breast tumors with morphologies that are characteristic of each initiating oncogene. Since these morphological differences reflect distinctive patterns of tumor-specific gene expression, the identification of the products of these genes might shed light on the mechanisms of transformation and/or the identity of target cells that are transformed by specific classes of oncogenes. By focusing on the tyrosine phosphorylation pathway, we have found that the transmembranal protein-tyrosine phosphatase epsilon (PTP epsilon) is highly expressed in murine mammary tumors initiated by c-neu and v-Haras, but not in mammary tumors initiated by c-myc or int-2. This difference is striking and occurs both in primary tumors and in epithelial cells cultured from them. Moreover, PTP epsilon overexpression appears to be mammary tumor-specific in that it is not found in other ras-based tumors and cell lines. These observations suggest that PTP epsilon either plays a role in ras- and neu-mediated transformation of mammary epithelium or marks mammary epithelial cells particularly susceptible to transformation by these oncogenes. Because of its distinctive expression in these mammary tumors, we have further characterized murine PTP epsilon, cloning and determining the complete structures of its cDNAs and showing that it is a glycoprotein that is N-glycosylated in a tissue-specific manner.