Most human tumors harbor mutations that misregulate the early phases of the cell cycle. Here, we summarize genetic evidence, mostly obtained in our laboratory using strains of gene-targeted mice, that provides direct experimental support for a role of Cdk4 in tumor development. Moreover, these genetic studies challenge some well-established concepts regarding the role of Cdks during the early phases of the cell cycle. For instance, they have illustrated that Cdk4 and Cdk6 are not essential for cell division during embryonic development except in the hematopoietic system. More surprisingly, mice lacking Cdk2 survive for over 2 years without detectable abnormalities except in their germ cells, indicating that Cdk2 is essential for meiosis but dispensable for the normal mitotic cell cycle. Cdk2 is also dispensable for cell cycle inhibition and tumor suppression by the Cip/Kip inhibitors, p21(Cip1) and p27(Kip1). These observations have important implications not only to understand cell cycle regulation, but also to validate Cdks as potential targets for the development of therapeutic strategies to block proliferation of tumor cells.
Cell cycle stimulation is a major transforming mechanism of Myc oncoprotein. This is achieved through at least three concomitant mechanisms: upregulation of cyclins and Cdks, downregulation of Cdk inhibitors p15 and p21 and the degradation of p27. The Myc-p27 antagonism has been shown to be relevant in human cancer. To be degraded, p27 must be phosphorylated at Thr-187 to be recognized by Skp2, a component of the ubiquitination complex. We previously described that Myc induces Skp2 expression. Here we show that not only Cdk2 but Cdk1 phosphorylates p27 at the Thr187, which was previously unreported. Moreover, Myc induced p27 degradation in murine fibroblasts through Cdk1 activation, which was achieved by Myc-dependent cyclin A and B induction. In the absence of Cdk2, p27 phosphorylation at Thr-187 was mainly carried out by cyclin A2-Cdk1 and cyclin B1-Cdk1. We also show that Cdk1 inhibition was sufficient for the synthetic lethal interaction with Myc. This result is relevant because Cdk1 is the only Cdk strictly required for cell cycle and the reported synthetic lethal interaction between Cdk1 and Myc.