Publication Date:
2015-05-20
Description:
Alternative polyadenylation (APA) is an important post-transcriptional modification implicated in many diseases, including cancer. Although extensively characterized, the functional consequence of APA modulation on tumorigenesis remains elusive. Here, we developed a deep sequencing-based approach that specifically profiles 3' termini of polyadenylated RNAs (herein termed 3T-seq) and analyzed APA events in two gastric cancer cell lines and one non-transformed counterpart. Overall, we identified 〉28 000 poly(A) sites, 70% of which are potentially novel. Further, we observed widespread APA-mediated 3' UTR shortening of 513 genes (false discovery rate 〈 0.05) across gastric cancer genome. We characterized one of these genes, NET1 , in detail and found that the shortening of NET1 3' UTR significantly enhances transcriptional activity. Moreover, the NET1 isoform with short 3' UTR promotes cellular migration and invasion in vitro . Collectively, our work provides an effective approach for genome-wide APA site profiling and reveals a link between APA modulation and gastric cancer metastasis.
Print ISSN:
0964-6906
Electronic ISSN:
1460-2083
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
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