Gene of the month: GLI-1

Chetty, Runjan

¹Department of Pathology, University Health Network Laboratory Medicine Program, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Correspondence to Professor Runjan Chetty, Department of Pathology, University Health Network Laboratory Medicine Program, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S, Canada; [email protected]

Accepted January 11, 2020

Handling editor Cheok Soon Lee.

Contributors RC is the sole author who conceived and wrote the manuscript.

Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Competing interests None declared.

Patient consent for publication Not required.

Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

Journal of Clinical Pathology 73(4):p 228-230, April 2020. | DOI: 10.1136/jclinpath-2020-206431

ABSTRACT

The Glioma-associated homologue-1 (GLI-1) gene was first discovered to be amplified in glioblastoma multiforme. It encodes for a zinc-finger transcription factor in the Kruppel family of proteins and is important in the sonic hedgehog signalling pathway. GLI-1 also plays a role in several other pathways and is important for proliferation, migration, invasion, growth and angioinvasion, and cancer stem cell self-renewal in a variety of malignancies. GLI-1 is amplified in several malignancies, including an epithelioid, pericytomatous soft tissue neoplasm that can exhibit malignant behaviour. More recently, GLI-1 fusions with other partner genes have been found in three rare tumours: a pericytomatous tumour with a t(7;12) translocation, where it partners with Actin beta 1, and gastroblastoma and plexiform fibromyxoma, where the partner gene is metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1, respectively.