Silencing of asparagine synthetase (ASNS), an amidotransferase that converts aspartate into asparagine, produced the strongest inhibitory effect on sarcoma growth in a functional genomic screen of mouse sarcomas generated by oncogenic Kras and disruption of Cdkn2a. ASNS silencing in mouse and human sarcoma cell lines reduced the percentage of S phase cells and impeded new polypeptide synthesis. This evidence concerns the gene CDKN2A and sarcoma.