Breast cancer driver genes found by screening chromosome aberrations in vivo

Cancer genomes are unstable, often experiencing gains or losses of whole chromosomes or chromosome arms — changes known as aneuploidies. Experiments in mouse models of breast cancer reveal that these instabilities harbour one or two prevalent genes that drive cancer and that bypass the need to accumulate aneuploidies; they also require an intact microenvironment to produce their effects. Altered expression of many drivers identified in the in vivo CRISPR screen did not alter cell behaviour in vitro.