Project description:Somatic L1 retrotransposition events have been shown to occur in epithelial cancers1-8. Here, we attempted to determine how early somatic L1 insertions occurred during the development of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Using L1-targeted resequencing (L1-seq), we studied different stages of four colorectal cancers arising from colonic polyps, seven pancreatic carcinomas, as well as seven gastric cancers. Surprisingly, we found somatic L1 insertions not only in all cancer types and metastases, but also in colonic adenomas, well-known cancer precursors. Some insertions were also present in low quantities in normal GI tissues, occasionally caught in the act of being clonally fixed in the adjacent tumors. Insertions in adenomas and cancers numbered in the hundreds and many were present in multiple tumor sections implying clonal distribution. Our results demonstrate that extensive somatic insertional mutagenesis occurs very early during the development of GI tumors, probably before dysplastic growth. Here we show Human SNP 6.0 Array experiments on DNAs from four colorectal cancer patients (1BV, 2BV, 3BV, and 4BV) with polyps and metastases. Here we characterize the samples for CNVs and compare the samples' CNV status to their respective somatic L1 retrotransposition profile.
Project description:Somatic L1 retrotransposition events have been shown to occur in epithelial cancers1-8. Here, we attempted to determine how early somatic L1 insertions occurred during the development of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Using L1-targeted resequencing (L1-seq), we studied different stages of four colorectal cancers arising from colonic polyps, seven pancreatic carcinomas, as well as seven gastric cancers. Surprisingly, we found somatic L1 insertions not only in all cancer types and metastases, but also in colonic adenomas, well-known cancer precursors. Some insertions were also present in low quantities in normal GI tissues, occasionally caught in the act of being clonally fixed in the adjacent tumors. Insertions in adenomas and cancers numbered in the hundreds and many were present in multiple tumor sections implying clonal distribution. Our results demonstrate that extensive somatic insertional mutagenesis occurs very early during the development of GI tumors, probably before dysplastic growth. We assessed the impact of somatic L1 insertions on the expression of the corresponding protein-coding genes by comparing protein abundance in the polyp with the highest number of somatic L1 insertions with that of its paired normal colon using mass spectrometry analysis. Of the 10 validated somatic insertions that were in protein coding regions in the polyp, two proteins – KIAA1217 and WARS2 – were downregulated in the adenoma >90% and >70%, respectively.
Project description:Somatic L1 retrotransposition events have been shown to occur in epithelial cancers1-8. Here, we attempted to determine how early somatic L1 insertions occurred during the development of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Using L1-targeted resequencing (L1-seq), we studied different stages of four colorectal cancers arising from colonic polyps, seven pancreatic carcinomas, as well as seven gastric cancers. Surprisingly, we found somatic L1 insertions not only in all cancer types and metastases, but also in colonic adenomas, well-known cancer precursors. Some insertions were also present in low quantities in normal GI tissues, occasionally caught in the act of being clonally fixed in the adjacent tumors. Insertions in adenomas and cancers numbered in the hundreds and many were present in multiple tumor sections implying clonal distribution. Our results demonstrate that extensive somatic insertional mutagenesis occurs very early during the development of GI tumors, probably before dysplastic growth.
Project description:L1 retrotransposons are active elements in the genome, capable of mobilization in neuronal progenitor cells. Previously, we showed that chromatin remodeling during neuronal differentiation allows for a transient stimulation of L1 transcription. The activity of L1 retrotransposons during brain development can impact gene expression and neuronal function. Here we show that L1 neuronal retrotransposition in rodents is increased in the absence of MeCP2, a protein involved in global methylation and human neurodevelopmental diseases. Using neuronal progenitor cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells and human tissues, we revealed that Rett syndrome patients, with MeCP2 mutations, have increased susceptibility for L1 retrotransposition. Our data demonstrate that disease-related genetic mutations can influence the frequency of neuronal L1 retrotransposition, thereby increasing brain-specific genetic mosaicism. Genetic reprogramming of somatic cells to a pluripotent state (induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs) by over-expression of specific genes has been accomplished for fibroblasts derived from controls and Rett syndrome patients. Different clones from each were compared to respective original fibroblasts and a human embryonic stem cell line. Gene expression profiles measured using human genome Affymetrix Gene Chip arrays were grouped by hierarchical clustering, and correlation coefficients were computed for all pair-wise comparisons.
Project description:L1 retrotransposons comprise 17% of the human genome and are its only autonomous mobile elements. Although L1-induced insertional mutagenesis causes Mendelian disease, their mutagenic load in cancer has been elusive. Using L1-targeted resequencing of 16 colorectal tumor and matched normal DNAs, we found that certain cancers were excessively mutagenized by human-specific L1s, while no verifiable insertions were present in normal tissues. We confirmed de novo L1 insertions in malignancy by both validating and sequencing 69/107 tumor-specific insertions and retrieving both 5' and 3' junctions for 35. In contrast to germline polymorphic L1s, all insertions were severely 5' truncated. Validated insertion numbers varied from up to 17 in some tumors to none in three others, and correlated with the age of the patients. Numerous genes with a role in tumorigenesis were targeted, including ODZ3, ROBO2, PTPRM, PCM1, and CDH11. Thus, somatic retrotransposition may play an etiologic role in colorectal cancer.
Project description:L1 retrotransposons are active elements in the genome, capable of mobilization in neuronal progenitor cells. Previously, we showed that chromatin remodeling during neuronal differentiation allows for a transient stimulation of L1 transcription. The activity of L1 retrotransposons during brain development can impact gene expression and neuronal function. Here we show that L1 neuronal retrotransposition in rodents is increased in the absence of MeCP2, a protein involved in global methylation and human neurodevelopmental diseases. Using neuronal progenitor cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells and human tissues, we revealed that Rett syndrome patients, with MeCP2 mutations, have increased susceptibility for L1 retrotransposition. Our data demonstrate that disease-related genetic mutations can influence the frequency of neuronal L1 retrotransposition, thereby increasing brain-specific genetic mosaicism.
Project description:We report that TAR DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43), mutations in which constitute a major risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), inhibits L1 retrotransposition in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) and preimplantation embryos. Knockdown of TDP-43 resulted in massive genomic L1 expansion and impaired cell growth in preimplantation embryos and ESCs. Functional analysis demonstrated that TDP-43 interacts with L1 open reading frame 1 protein (L1 ORF1p) to mediate genomic protection, and loss of this interaction led to de-repression of L1 retrotransposition. Our results identify TDP-43 as a guardian of the embryonic genome by protecting it from massive L1 retrotransposition.
Project description:<p>The purpose of this study is to ascertain the locations of somatic LINE-1 retrotransposition events in human colon tumor samples by pooling multiple tumor samples from different patients and performing a targeted resequencing assay (Ewing and Kazazian, Genome Research 2010) to sequence the 3′flanking regions of all insertions in the pooled sample. The result is compared to the result of applying the same method to pooled normal samples from the same patients as were used in the pooled tumor sample and selecting sites that show an insertion in the tumor but not in the normaltissue and do not correspond to any known non-reference LINE-1 insertion allele. The selected sites are then validated by site-specific PCR and capillary sequencing to confirm that they represent LINE-1 insertions and to obtain breakpoint sequences.</p>