Project description:Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer with rising incidence and mortality rates. Oncogenic mutation in BRAF gene is the single most frequent genetic alteration in human melanoma; however, this event per se is not sufficient to produce melanoma in vivo. We have investigated whether epigenetic changes, specifically aberrant DNA methylation and dysregulation of gene expression, alone or in combination with this genetic event, are involved in the genesis of human melanoma. We have constructed the whole ‘‘of primary human melanomas in relation to their BRAF mutational status. Our methylation profiling identified a large number of hyper- or hypomethylated genes in melanoma tumors, many of which being novel and having the potential to serve as biomarkers. Gene ontology analysis revealed that gene categories involved in neuronal cell morphology and development, and skin and neurological disorders were highly enriched. Frequently methylated targets included developmental regulatory transcription factors and homeobox genes, which are mostly subjected to bivalent histone marking and Polycomb occupancy in embryonic stem cells. Notably, several genes involved in the MEK-ERK and the PI3K pathways, two of the most frequently perturbed pathways in human melanoma, showed extensive methylation changes. Gene expression profiling identified a long list of dysregulated genes, many of which being involved in melanocytes development and differentiation, and showing concomitant aberrant DNA methylation. Sub-typing of the melanoma tumors based on BRAF mutational status revealed that tumors with a mutated BRAF had distinctive and more pronounced changes in both DNA methylation and gene expression profiles than tumors carrying the wildtype BRAF. The differentially compromised methylome and transcriptome of melanomas (dependent on BRAF mutation) deserves special attention because many epigenetic alterations, including DNA methylation-mediated regulation of gene expression, are potentially reversible. The dichotomous integrity of epigenome in human melanoma holds great promise for the field of personalized medicine.

Project description:Melanoma genomes are often characterized by large numbers of sunlight-induced mutations. However, epigenetic alterations, in the form of aberrant DNA methylation patterns, are also abundant. Using MIRA-seq, we have carried out a comprehensive characterization of the DNA methylome in a series of metastatic melanoma samples and catalogued the methylation changes relative to normal melanocytes, the presumed cells of origin for these tumors. Individual melanoma tumors contained up to several thousand hypermethylated regions. We discovered 179 tumor-specific methylation peaks that were present in all (27/27) melanomas and may lend themselves as effective disease biomarkers, and 3124 methylation peaks were present in >40% of the tumors. We specifically examined the relationship between presence of the Polycomb mark, H3K27me3 in melanocytes and tumor-specific DNA methylation in melanoma. We found that 150 of the approximately 1,200 tumor-associated methylation peaks near transcription start sites (TSS) were H3K27me3-marked in melanocytes. Notably, DNA methylation in melanoma was specific for distinct H3K27me3 peaks rather than for H3K27me3-enriched regions with broad genomic coverage. Yet, there were also numerous H3K27me3 peak-associated TSS regions that were completely resistant to DNA methylation in tumors. Furthermore, a rather large group of genes became methylated in melanoma but lacked H3K27me3 in melanocytes. There was no relationship between presence of BRAF V600 mutations and the number of methylation peaks in individual tumors. Gene expression analysis showed a strong signature of upregulated immune response genes in melanomas presumably as a result of lymphocyte infiltration. Genes down-regulated in tumors were enriched for melanocyte differentiation and pigmentation factors. Overall, there was limited correlation between tumor-associated DNA methylation changes and changes in gene expression although distinct melanocyte differentiation genes including KIT, PAX3 and SOX10 became methylated and downregulated in melanoma. Using MIRA-Seq, DNA methylation profiles of 27 malignant melanomas and 3 primary cultured melanocyte samples were determined

Project description:Melanoma genomes are often characterized by large numbers of sunlight-induced mutations. However, epigenetic alterations, in the form of aberrant DNA methylation patterns, are also abundant. Using MIRA-seq, we have carried out a comprehensive characterization of the DNA methylome in a series of metastatic melanoma samples and catalogued the methylation changes relative to normal melanocytes, the presumed cells of origin for these tumors. Individual melanoma tumors contained up to several thousand hypermethylated regions. We discovered 179 tumor-specific methylation peaks that were present in all (27/27) melanomas and may lend themselves as effective disease biomarkers, and 3124 methylation peaks were present in >40% of the tumors. We specifically examined the relationship between presence of the Polycomb mark, H3K27me3 in melanocytes and tumor-specific DNA methylation in melanoma. We found that 150 of the approximately 1,200 tumor-associated methylation peaks near transcription start sites (TSS) were H3K27me3-marked in melanocytes. Notably, DNA methylation in melanoma was specific for distinct H3K27me3 peaks rather than for H3K27me3-enriched regions with broad genomic coverage. Yet, there were also numerous H3K27me3 peak-associated TSS regions that were completely resistant to DNA methylation in tumors. Furthermore, a rather large group of genes became methylated in melanoma but lacked H3K27me3 in melanocytes. There was no relationship between presence of BRAF V600 mutations and the number of methylation peaks in individual tumors. Gene expression analysis showed a strong signature of upregulated immune response genes in melanomas presumably as a result of lymphocyte infiltration. Genes down-regulated in tumors were enriched for melanocyte differentiation and pigmentation factors. Overall, there was limited correlation between tumor-associated DNA methylation changes and changes in gene expression although distinct melanocyte differentiation genes including KIT, PAX3 and SOX10 became methylated and downregulated in melanoma. Genome-wide gene expression analysis of 17 melanomas and 3 melanocyte samples

Project description:Melanoma genomes are often characterized by large numbers of sunlight-induced mutations. However, epigenetic alterations, in the form of aberrant DNA methylation patterns, are also abundant. Using MIRA-seq, we have carried out a comprehensive characterization of the DNA methylome in a series of metastatic melanoma samples and catalogued the methylation changes relative to normal melanocytes, the presumed cells of origin for these tumors. Individual melanoma tumors contained up to several thousand hypermethylated regions. We discovered 179 tumor-specific methylation peaks that were present in all (27/27) melanomas and may lend themselves as effective disease biomarkers, and 3124 methylation peaks were present in >40% of the tumors. We specifically examined the relationship between presence of the Polycomb mark, H3K27me3 in melanocytes and tumor-specific DNA methylation in melanoma. We found that 150 of the approximately 1,200 tumor-associated methylation peaks near transcription start sites (TSS) were H3K27me3-marked in melanocytes. Notably, DNA methylation in melanoma was specific for distinct H3K27me3 peaks rather than for H3K27me3-enriched regions with broad genomic coverage. Yet, there were also numerous H3K27me3 peak-associated TSS regions that were completely resistant to DNA methylation in tumors. Furthermore, a rather large group of genes became methylated in melanoma but lacked H3K27me3 in melanocytes. There was no relationship between presence of BRAF V600 mutations and the number of methylation peaks in individual tumors. Gene expression analysis showed a strong signature of upregulated immune response genes in melanomas presumably as a result of lymphocyte infiltration. Genes down-regulated in tumors were enriched for melanocyte differentiation and pigmentation factors. Overall, there was limited correlation between tumor-associated DNA methylation changes and changes in gene expression although distinct melanocyte differentiation genes including KIT, PAX3 and SOX10 became methylated and downregulated in melanoma. Examination of H3K27me3 histone modification in human normal melanocytes.

Project description:Melanoma genomes are often characterized by large numbers of sunlight-induced mutations. However, epigenetic alterations, in the form of aberrant DNA methylation patterns, are also abundant. Using MIRA-seq, we have carried out a comprehensive characterization of the DNA methylome in a series of metastatic melanoma samples and catalogued the methylation changes relative to normal melanocytes, the presumed cells of origin for these tumors. Individual melanoma tumors contained up to several thousand hypermethylated regions. We discovered 179 tumor-specific methylation peaks that were present in all (27/27) melanomas and may lend themselves as effective disease biomarkers, and 3124 methylation peaks were present in >40% of the tumors. We specifically examined the relationship between presence of the Polycomb mark, H3K27me3 in melanocytes and tumor-specific DNA methylation in melanoma. We found that 150 of the approximately 1,200 tumor-associated methylation peaks near transcription start sites (TSS) were H3K27me3-marked in melanocytes. Notably, DNA methylation in melanoma was specific for distinct H3K27me3 peaks rather than for H3K27me3-enriched regions with broad genomic coverage. Yet, there were also numerous H3K27me3 peak-associated TSS regions that were completely resistant to DNA methylation in tumors. Furthermore, a rather large group of genes became methylated in melanoma but lacked H3K27me3 in melanocytes. There was no relationship between presence of BRAF V600 mutations and the number of methylation peaks in individual tumors. Gene expression analysis showed a strong signature of upregulated immune response genes in melanomas presumably as a result of lymphocyte infiltration. Genes down-regulated in tumors were enriched for melanocyte differentiation and pigmentation factors. Overall, there was limited correlation between tumor-associated DNA methylation changes and changes in gene expression although distinct melanocyte differentiation genes including KIT, PAX3 and SOX10 became methylated and downregulated in melanoma.

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Alterations of methylome and transcriptome in human melanoma: the inverse relationship between epigenome integrity and BRAF mutation

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