Project description:Orthotopic tumors were previously generated from parental Prostate Luminal (PLum) cells under androgen‑dependent (PLum-AD) and androgen‑independent (PLum-AI) conditions in order to establish cellular models of prostate cancer progression (Abou-Kheir et al., 2011; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026112). We used microarrays to evaluate the differential gene expression profiles underlying progression of prostate cancer from primary androgen-dependent stage to advanced androgen-independent stage using newly isolated murine prostate cancer cell lines. Those cell lines represent novel in vitro models of androgen‑dependent and –independent prostate cancer, recapitulating the progression of the disease to a more invasive phenotype upon androgen deprivation.
Project description:Cancer is predominantly a somatic disease. A mutant allele found in cancer cell genome is considered somatic when it is absent in paired normal genome and dbSNP, the most comprehensive public SNP database. However, dbSNP inadequately represents several non-Caucasian populations including that from the Indian subcontinent, posing a limitation in cancer genomic analyses of data from these populations. We present TMC-SNPdb, as the first open source freely accessible (through ANNOVAR), flexible and upgradable SNP database from whole exome data of 62 normal samples derived from cancer patients of Indian origin, representing 114,309 unique germline variants. TMC-SNPdb is presented with a companion subtraction tool that can be executed with command line option or an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) with the ability to deplete additional Indian population specific SNPs over and above that possible with dbSNP and 1000 Genomes databases. Using an institutional generated whole exome data set of 132 samples of Indian origin, we demonstrate that TMC-SNPdb reduced 42%, 33% and 28% false positive somatic events post dbSNP depletion in Indian origin tongue, gallbladder, and cervical cancer samples, respectively. Beyond cancer somatic analyses, we anticipate utility of TMC-SNPdb in several Mendelian germline diseases.
Project description:The study involves whole exome sequencing of 20 primary tumors obtained from lung squamous carcinoma patients of Indian origin. With this, we aim to describe the mutational profile of this specific subset of lung cancer patients. This knowledge will further allow us to gain an insight into potentially actionable genomic alterations prevalent in Indian lung squamous carcinoma.
Project description:Prunus persica (peach) trees carrying the ‘Pillar’ or ‘Broomy’ trait (br) have vertically oriented branches caused by loss of function mutations in a gene called TILLER ANGLE CONTROL 1 (TAC1). TAC1 encodes a protein in the IGT gene family that includes LAZY1 and DEEPER ROOTING 1 (DRO1), which regulat lateral branch and root orientations, respectively. Here, we found that some of the native TAC1 alleles in the hexaploid plum species Prunus domestica, which has a naturally more upright stature, contained a variable length trinucleotide repeat within the same exon 3 region previously found to be disrupted in pillar peach trees. RNAi silencing of TAC1 in plum resulted in trees with severely vertical branch orientations similar to those in pillar peaches but with an even narrower profile. In contrast, PpeTAC1 over-expression in plum led to trees with wider branch angles and more horizontal branch orientations. Pillar peach trees and transgenic plum lines exhibited pleiotropic phenotypes including differences in trunk and branch diameter, stem growth, and twisting branch phenotypes. Expression profiling of pillar peach trees revealed differential expression of numerous genes associated with biotic and abiotic stress, hormone responses, plastids, reactive oxygen, and secondary and cell wall metabolism. Collectively, the data provide important clues for understanding TAC1 function and show that alteration of TAC1 expression may have broad applicability to agricultural and ornamental tree industries.