Project description:Colorectal cancer, one of the most frequent types of malignancy in the Western world, develops through a multi-step process. The main pathways establishing transformation of normal mucosa to invasive carcinoma include chromosomal instability (CIN), microsatellite instability (MSI) or epigenetic silencing through the CpG Island Methylator Phenotype (CIMP). These pathways have distinct clinical, pathological and genetic characteristics. In general, altered cell surface glycosylation has been linked to colorectal cancer progression, however the impact of MSI-specific pathways on the glycosylation machinery of MSI colon cancer cells has not been investigated yet. In a recent study (Patsos et al., 2009) we have shown that MSI-specific mutations induce marked alterations in cell surface glycosylation, indicating specific changes in the expression of glyco-genes. Therefore the purpose of our experiment is to define these changes by glyco-gene chip analysis. Biallelic mutational inactivation of MSI target genes is believed to drive MSI tumorigenesis. TGFBR2, ACVR2 and AIM2 are among the most frequently mutated genes in MSI colorectal adenomas and carcinomas and functional studies indicate their contribution to MSI-carcinogenesis. A first general screening approach by lectin FACS analysis indicated a correlation between functional inactivation of these genes and cell surface glycosylation of the MSI colon cell line HCT116 (Patsos et al., 2009). For detailed analysis of the altered glycosylation pattern and the underlying molecular mechanisms we have established HCT116 double stable transfectants that allow doxycycline-inducible expression of the three MSI target genes TGFBR2, ACVR2 and AIM2 in a reversible manner. Thus we can experimentally control the expression of the MSI-genes and analyze short and long-term effects on different cell functions, including glycosylation. From the application of the glyco-gene chip for analysis of the transfectants we expect to gain seminal information on the influence of MSI-target genes on glycan expression and function in MSI tumor cells. Correlating loss-of-function of MSI target genes not yet linked with glycosylation to the regulation of the glycophenotype is a novel approach to investigate the glycobiology of tumor cells. In addition it is also suitable to detect new MSI-(glyco)markers for clinical applications, including diagnostic tumor markers and specific targets for immunotherapies.
Project description:We have performed a Proteogenomics meta-analysis of data sets deposited in ProteomeXchange: PXD000265, PXD000313, PXD000923, PXD001030, PXD001058, PXD002291, PXD002739, PXD002740 and PXD003156 and using 29 RNA-Seq data sets on rice (Oryza sativa). We created a search database comprising translated reads that had been mapped onto the rice genome, as well as officially annotated rice proteins sequences. The RNA Seq database was pre-processed to identify “novel transcripts” for those not mapping fully to an existing exon, and “novel junctions” for those reads mapped with a gap, implying a potential novel splice site that was not annotated in the official gene set. Confidentially identified “novel peptides” i.e. those mapping to a novel junction or novel transcript were post-processed to ensure that there were no other better explanations for the corresponding spectra e.g. peptide from a canonical gene with a modification or amino acid substitution. Data were exported from the pipeline in PSI mzIdentML 1.2 format, containing chromosomal coordinates, and further converted to PSI proBed format for genome visualisation. Novel peptides were searched against other plant databases using BLAST to see if they had predicted in genes from other species. A total of 1584 novel peptides were identified, mapping to ~700 genomic loci in which either new genes have been predicted (~100) or updates to existing gene models have been predicted (~600).
Project description:Members of the Msi family of RNA-binding proteins have recently emerged as potent oncoproteins in a range of malignancies. MSI2 is highly expressed in hematopoietic cancers, where it is required for disease maintenance. In contrast to the hematopoietic system, colorectal cancers can express both Msi family members, MSI1 and MSI2. Here, we demonstrate that, in the intestinal epithelium, Msi1 and Msi2 have analogous oncogenic effects. Further, comparison of Msi1/2-induced gene expression programs and transcriptome-wide analyses of Msi1/2-RNA-binding targets reveal significant functional overlap, including induction of the PDK-Akt-mTORC1 axis. Ultimately, we demonstrate that concomitant loss of function of both MSI family members is sufficient to abrogate the growth of human colorectal cancer cells, and Msi gene deletion inhibits tumorigenesis in several mouse models of intestinal cancer. Our findings demonstrate that MSI1 and MSI2 act as functionally redundant oncoproteins required for the ontogeny of intestinal cancers.
Project description:We report the application of high-throughput sequencing to performed the p53 regulated trancriptome in HCT116 colon cancer cells treated with the DNA damage 5FU. To study the direct targets of p53 we performed ChIP-seq to deterrmined the p53 biding sites and associated with the expression levels. With this study we identified the new genomic regions regulated by p53 and with special attention in those regions that are non coding and are differentially expressed by the DNA damage drug. Description of the p53 transcriptome in HCT116 colon cancer cell line. The RNA-seq libraries were prepared from purified poly-A+ RNA from untreated and 5-Fluorouracil treated p53 +/+ HCT116 cells for 4 and 12h, including two independent samples for the time 12h. Paired-end and strand specific RNA sequencing libraries were prepared according to Illumina instructions and sequenced on HiSeq 2000 (Ilumina) with sequence length of 150 bp. Raw sequencing data were alignment to the human genome (hg19) using Tophat mapper.