Project description:Tumour DNA contains thousands of somatic single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in non-protein-coding elements, yet their functional significance remains poorly understood. Amongst the most highly mutated elements are long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), functional transcripts with known roles in carcinogenesis. To search for driver mutations in lncRNAs, we apply an integrative driver discovery algorithm to SNVs from 2583 primary tumours and 3527 metastases to reveal 54 potential “driver lncRNAs”. Our algorithm confirms a particularly high mutation rate in the iconic cancer lncRNA, NEAT1, which has been ascribed by recent studies to passenger effects. We directly test the functionality of NEAT1 SNVs using in cellulo mutagenesis, identifying discrete regions where mutations reproducibly increase cell proliferation in diverse cell backgrounds, both cancerous and normal. In particular, mutations in the 5’ region alter ribonucleoprotein assembly and boost the population of subnuclear paraspeckles, thus mechanistically linking mutations to cellular proliferation. We then used RNA-pull down followed by mass spectrometry to identify the protein interactor changing between the wild type and mutant form of NEAT1.
Project description:Thousands of noncoding somatic Single Nucleotide Variants (SNVs) of unknown function are reported in tumors. Partitioning the genome according to cistromes, reveals the enrichment of somatic SNVs in prostate tumors as opposed to adjacent normal tissue cistromes of master transcription regulators, including AR, FOXA1 and HOXB13. This parallels enrichment of prostate cancer genetic predispositions over these transcription regulators’ tumor cistromes, exemplified at the 8q24 locus harboring both risk-variants and somatic SNVs in cis-regulatory elements, upregulating MYC expression and altering the binding of transcription regulators to DNA. However, Massively-Parallel Reporter Assays reveal that few SNVs can alter the transactivation potential of individual CREs. Instead, SNVs accumulate, similarly to inherited riskvariants, in cistromes of master transcription regulators required for prostate cancer development. Significance Difficulties in inferring the biological significance of noncoding mutations have limited their inclusion in precision genomics medicine pipelines. Most attempts to delineate a role for noncoding mutations relied on detecting evidence for positive selection within individual CREs, such as reported for the TERT gene promoter. By considering the enrichment of noncoding mutations in cistromes as opposed to individual CREs, we reveal their specificity towards master transcription regulators that promote prostate cancer development, a feature shared with inherited risk-variants. Overall, our work provides a blueprint for the functional interpretation of noncoding mutations in genomic tests relying on defining cis-regulatory units according to cistrome-partitioning to identify cancer driver transcription regulators.
Project description:The Hippo pathway is a commonly altered signaling pathway involved in cancer initiation and progression; however, exactly how this pathway becomes dysregulated to promote human cancer development has not been fully understood. In this study, we systematically analyzed the Hippo somatic mutations derived from human cancer genome and functionally annotated their roles in targeting the Hippo pathway. We identified a total of 85 driver missense mutations for the major Hippo pathway genes and elucidated the mechanisms by which these mutations altered their functions in the Hippo pathway. Through these analyses, we revealed zinc-finger domain (ZNF) as an integral structure required for MOB1 function, whose driver mutations promoted head and neck cancer development. Moreover, we discovered that the schwannoma/meningioma-derived NF2 driver mutations gained an oncogenic role by activating the VANGL-JNK pathway. Taken together, our study offers a rich somatic mutation resource for further investigating the Hippo pathway in human cancer, providing a molecular basis for the development of Hippo-related personalized cancer therapy.
2024-10-18 | PXD049472 | Pride
Project description:Discover driver genes with somatic mutations for heterogeneous tumor image phenotype in pancreatic cancer
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.This contains multi-omics datasets transcriptomic (RNA-Seq), methylomic (WGBS), and epigenomics (ATAC-seq) obtained during onset of sexual maturation in Atlantic salmon. We used gene regulatory networks (GRNs) to integrate results from these multi-omic analyses to identify key regulators of maturation.
Project description:Pancreatic adenosquamous carcinoma (PASC) is an aggressive cancer whose mutational origins are poorly understood. An early study reported high-frequency somatic mutations affecting UPF1, a core nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) factor, in PASC, but subsequent studies did not observe these lesions. The corresponding controversy about whether UPF1 mutations are important contributors to PASC has been exacerbated by a paucity of functional studies. Here, we modeled two UPF1 mutations to find no significant effects on pancreatic cancer growth, acquisition of adenosquamous features, UPF1 splicing, UPF1 protein levels, or NMD efficiency. We subsequently discovered that ~40% of UPF1 mutations reportedly present in PASCs are identical to standing genetic variants in the human population, suggesting that they may be non-pathogenic inherited variants rather than pathogenic mutations. Our data suggest that UPF1 is not a common functional driver of PASC and motivate further attempts to identify unique genetic features defining these malignancies.
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the following subset Series: GSE17768: An integrative multi-dimensional genetic and epigenetic strategy to identify aberrant genes and pathways in cancer: gene expression GSE17769: An integrative multi-dimensional genetic and epigenetic strategy to identify aberrant genes and pathways in cancer: DNA methylation GSE21347: An integrative multi-dimensional genetic and epigenetic strategy to identify aberrant genes and pathways in cancer: allelic status GSE21540: An integrative multi-dimensional genetic and epigenetic strategy to identify aberrant genes and pathways in cancer: CGH Refer to individual Series