ALBERT

Description: Long interspersed nuclear element-1 (L1) retrotransposons are mobile repetitive elements that are abundant in the human genome. L1 elements propagate through RNA intermediates. In the germ line, neighboring, nonrepetitive sequences are occasionally mobilized by the L1 machinery, a process called 3' transduction. Because 3' transductions are potentially mutagenic, we explored the extent to which they occur somatically during tumorigenesis. Studying cancer genomes from 244 patients, we found that tumors from 53% of the patients had somatic retrotranspositions, of which 24% were 3' transductions. Fingerprinting of donor L1s revealed that a handful of source L1 elements in a tumor can spawn from tens to hundreds of 3' transductions, which can themselves seed further retrotranspositions. The activity of individual L1 elements fluctuated during tumor evolution and correlated with L1 promoter hypomethylation. The 3' transductions disseminated genes, exons, and regulatory elements to new locations, most often to heterochromatic regions of the genome.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4380235/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4380235/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tubio, Jose M C -- Li, Yilong -- Ju, Young Seok -- Martincorena, Inigo -- Cooke, Susanna L -- Tojo, Marta -- Gundem, Gunes -- Pipinikas, Christodoulos P -- Zamora, Jorge -- Raine, Keiran -- Menzies, Andrew -- Roman-Garcia, Pablo -- Fullam, Anthony -- Gerstung, Moritz -- Shlien, Adam -- Tarpey, Patrick S -- Papaemmanuil, Elli -- Knappskog, Stian -- Van Loo, Peter -- Ramakrishna, Manasa -- Davies, Helen R -- Marshall, John -- Wedge, David C -- Teague, Jon W -- Butler, Adam P -- Nik-Zainal, Serena -- Alexandrov, Ludmil -- Behjati, Sam -- Yates, Lucy R -- Bolli, Niccolo -- Mudie, Laura -- Hardy, Claire -- Martin, Sancha -- McLaren, Stuart -- O'Meara, Sarah -- Anderson, Elizabeth -- Maddison, Mark -- Gamble, Stephen -- ICGC Breast Cancer Group -- ICGC Bone Cancer Group -- ICGC Prostate Cancer Group -- Foster, Christopher -- Warren, Anne Y -- Whitaker, Hayley -- Brewer, Daniel -- Eeles, Rosalind -- Cooper, Colin -- Neal, David -- Lynch, Andy G -- Visakorpi, Tapio -- Isaacs, William B -- van't Veer, Laura -- Caldas, Carlos -- Desmedt, Christine -- Sotiriou, Christos -- Aparicio, Sam -- Foekens, John A -- Eyfjord, Jorunn Erla -- Lakhani, Sunil R -- Thomas, Gilles -- Myklebost, Ola -- Span, Paul N -- Borresen-Dale, Anne-Lise -- Richardson, Andrea L -- Van de Vijver, Marc -- Vincent-Salomon, Anne -- Van den Eynden, Gert G -- Flanagan, Adrienne M -- Futreal, P Andrew -- Janes, Sam M -- Bova, G Steven -- Stratton, Michael R -- McDermott, Ultan -- Campbell, Peter J -- 088340/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 091730/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 14835/Cancer Research UK/United Kingdom -- C5047/A14835/Cancer Research UK/United Kingdom -- G0900871/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- P30 CA006973/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- WT100183MA/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- Department of Health/United Kingdom -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Aug 1;345(6196):1251343. doi: 10.1126/science.1251343.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK. ; Department of Physiology, School of Medicine-Center for Resesarch in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases, Instituto de Investigaciones Sanitarias, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. ; Lungs for Living Research Centre, Rayne Institute, University College London (UCL), London, UK. ; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK. Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. Department of Oncology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway. ; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK. Human Genome Laboratory, Department of Human Genetics, VIB and KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. ; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK. Cambridge University Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK. ; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK. Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. ; University of Liverpool and HCA Pathology Laboratories, London, UK. ; Cambridge University Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK. ; Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. ; Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, London, UK. University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. ; Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, London, UK. ; Institute of Biosciences and Medical Technology-BioMediTech, University of Tampere and Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland. ; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. ; Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands. ; Breast Cancer Translational Research Laboratory, Institut Jules Bordet, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium. ; British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, Canada. ; Department of Medical Oncology, Erasmus Medical Center Cancer Institute, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands. ; Cancer Research Laboratory, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. ; School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Pathology Queensland, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. UQ Centre for Clinical Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. ; Universite Lyon 1, Institut National du Cancer (INCa)-Synergie, Lyon, France. ; Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. ; Department of Radiation Oncology and Department of Laboratory Medicine, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands. ; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA. ; Department of Pathology, Academic Medical Center, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, Netherlands. ; Institut Bergonie, 229 cours de l'Argone, 33076 Bordeaux, France. Institut Curie, Department of Tumor Biology, 26 rue d'Ulm, 75248 Paris cedex 05, France. ; Translational Cancer Research Unit and Department of Pathology, GZA Hospitals, Antwerp, Belgium. ; Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Middlesex, UK. UCL Cancer Institute, University College London, London, UK. ; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK. MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA. ; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK. Cambridge University Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK. Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. pc8@sanger.ac.uk.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25082706" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: How somatic mutations accumulate in normal cells is central to understanding cancer development but is poorly understood. We performed ultradeep sequencing of 74 cancer genes in small (0.8 to 4.7 square millimeters) biopsies of normal skin. Across 234 biopsies of sun-exposed eyelid epidermis from four individuals, the burden of somatic mutations averaged two to six mutations per megabase per cell, similar to that seen in many cancers, and exhibited characteristic signatures of exposure to ultraviolet light. Remarkably, multiple cancer genes are under strong positive selection even in physiologically normal skin, including most of the key drivers of cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas. Positively selected mutations were found in 18 to 32% of normal skin cells at a density of ~140 driver mutations per square centimeter. We observed variability in the driver landscape among individuals and variability in the sizes of clonal expansions across genes. Thus, aged sun-exposed skin is a patchwork of thousands of evolving clones with over a quarter of cells carrying cancer-causing mutations while maintaining the physiological functions of epidermis.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4471149/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4471149/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Martincorena, Inigo -- Roshan, Amit -- Gerstung, Moritz -- Ellis, Peter -- Van Loo, Peter -- McLaren, Stuart -- Wedge, David C -- Fullam, Anthony -- Alexandrov, Ludmil B -- Tubio, Jose M -- Stebbings, Lucy -- Menzies, Andrew -- Widaa, Sara -- Stratton, Michael R -- Jones, Philip H -- Campbell, Peter J -- 077012/Z/05/Z/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 093867/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 103858/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- C609/A17257/Cancer Research UK/United Kingdom -- WT088340MA/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 May 22;348(6237):880-6. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa6806.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton CB10 1SA, Cambridgeshire, UK. ; MRC Cancer Unit, Hutchison-MRC Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. ; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton CB10 1SA, Cambridgeshire, UK. Francis Crick Institute, London, UK. Department of Human Genetics, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. ; MRC Cancer Unit, Hutchison-MRC Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. phj20@mrc-cu.cam.ac.uk pc8@sanger.ac.uk. ; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton CB10 1SA, Cambridgeshire, UK. Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. phj20@mrc-cu.cam.ac.uk pc8@sanger.ac.uk.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25999502" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Sarcomas are cancers of the bone and soft tissue often defined by gene fusions. Ewing sarcoma involves fusions between EWSR1 , a gene encoding an RNA binding protein, and E26 transformation-specific (ETS) transcription factors. We explored how and when EWSR1-ETS fusions arise by studying the whole genomes of Ewing sarcomas. In 52 of 124 (42%) of tumors, the fusion gene arises by a sudden burst of complex, loop-like rearrangements, a process called chromoplexy, rather than by simple reciprocal translocations. These loops always contained the disease-defining fusion at the center, but they disrupted multiple additional genes. The loops occurred preferentially in early replicating and transcriptionally active genomic regions. Similar loops forming canonical fusions were found in three other sarcoma types. Chromoplexy-generated fusions appear to be associated with an aggressive form of Ewing sarcoma. These loops arise early, giving rise to both primary and relapse Ewing sarcoma tumors, which can continue to evolve in parallel.