ABI1 conditional knockout mouse

1. A knock-out mouse for use in screening compounds for anti-cancer activity, wherein said mouse contains a prostate-specific disruption in exon 1 of an Abi interactor 1 (Abi-1) gene, and said disruption results in an inability of said mouse to produce detectable levels of the Abi-1 protein in said prostate tissue and said mouse develops prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia.

2. The knock-out mouse of claim 1 wherein said Abi1 gene is only disrupted in the mouse's prostate tissue expressing a Cre recombinase.

3. The knock-out mouse of claim 1 , wherein the disrupted Abi-1 gene comprises a recombinant Abi-1 allele, a selectable marker, frt sites flanking the selectable marker, and loxP sites flanking a portion of the allele.

4. The knock-out mouse of claim 1 wherein said Abi-1 gene is not expressed in only a portion of the mouse's tissues.

5. The knock-out mouse of claim 1 wherein a prostate cell in said mouse exhibits at least one alteration selected from the group consisting of disruption of cell motility, increased directional persistence, decreased migration distance, and decreased migration rate.

6. A cell isolated from the mouse of claim 1 .

7. The cell of claim 6 wherein the cell is from the mouse's prostate tissue.

8. A mouse Abi-1 gene knock-out construct comprising:

a) a portion of a mouse Abi-1 gene, wherein exon 1 of said Abi-1 gene is flanked by 3′ and 5′ loxP sites;

b) a selectable marker between exon 1 and the 3′ loxP site;

c) frt sites 5′ and 3′ to the selectable marker; and

d) an additional loxP site 3′ to the 5′ frt site,

wherein the construct comprises SEQ ID NO: 14.

9. A method of producing a knockout mouse with a prostate-targeted disruption in an Abi-1 gene, comprising the steps of:

transfecting the knockout gene construct of claim 8 into a population of murine embryonic stem (ES) cells;

selecting a transfected ES cell which expresses said selectable marker;

introducing said transfected ES cell into an embryo of an ancestor of said mouse;

allowing said embryo to develop to term to produce a chimeric mouse with a conditional knock-out construct in its germ line;

breeding said chimeric mouse to produce a heterozygous mouse with a conditionally disruptable Abi-1 gene; and

breeding said heterozygous mouse with a mouse expressing flippase or Cre recombinase only in prostate tissue to produce a mouse with a prostate-specific disruption in the Abi-1 gene, wherein the prostate tissue does not contain said selectable marker and wherein said mouse develops prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia.