The above findings were further extended by using a xenograft lung metastasis model, in which depletion of Uev1 limited tumor growth to the extent that no tumor was found in nude mice injected with MDA-MB-231 cells in which the Uev1 level was reduced by shUEV1-2 (Figure 3D and Additional file 2: Figure S5F). The gene discussed is UBE2V1; the disease is neoplasm.