Together, these observations suggest that cells derived from PyMT mouse mammary carcinomas maintain a predetermined chromatin state depending on genotype: cells with intact LATS1 tend to retain a luminal chromatin setting, whereas cells lacking LATS1 are predisposed to adopt a basal-like chromatin architecture, thereby reducing epigenetic barriers and enabling them to slip more readily into a more basal-like phenotypic state. This evidence concerns the gene LATS1 and breast carcinoma.