The use of transformed IMR90 cell model to identify the potential extra-telomeric effects of hTERT in cell migration and DNA damage response.

BACKGROUND: Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), the catalytic subunit of telomesase, is responsible for telomere maintenance and its reactivation is implicated in almost 90% human cancers. Recent evidences show that hTERT is essential for neoplastic transformation independent of its canonical function. However, the roles of hTERT in the process remain elusive. In the current work, we explore the extra-telomeric role of hTERT in the neoplastic transformation of fibroblast IMR90. RESULTS: Here we established transformed IMR90 cells by co-expression of three oncogenic factors, namely, H-Ras, SV40 Large-T antigen and hTERT (RSH). The RSH-transformed cells acquired hallmarks of cancer, such as they can grow under anchorage independent conditions; self-sufficient in growth signals; attenuated response to apoptosis; and possessed recurrent chromosomal abnormalities. Furthermore, the RSH-transformed cells showed enhanced migration capability which was also observed in IMR90 cells expressing hTERT alone, indicating that hTERT plays a role in cell migration, and thus possibly contribute to their metastatic potential during tumor transformation. This notion was further supported by our microarray analysis. In addition, we found that Ku70 were exclusively upregulated in both RSH-transformed IMR90 cells and hTERT-overexpressing IMR90 cells, suggesting the potential role of hTERT in DNA damage response (DDR). CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, our study revealed the extra-telomeric effects of hTERT in cell migration and DDR during neoplastic transformation.

Long span DNA paired-end-tag (DNA-PET) sequencing strategy for the interrogation of genomic structural mutations and fusion-point-guided reconstruction of amplicons.

Structural variations (SVs) contribute significantly to the variability of the human genome and extensive genomic rearrangements are a hallmark of cancer. While genomic DNA paired-end-tag (DNA-PET) sequencing is an attractive approach to identify genomic SVs, the current application of PET sequencing with short insert size DNA can be insufficient for the comprehensive mapping of SVs in low complexity and repeat-rich genomic regions. We employed a recently developed procedure to generate PET sequencing data using large DNA inserts of 10-20 kb and compared their characteristics with short insert (1 kb) libraries for their ability to identify SVs. Our results suggest that although short insert libraries bear an advantage in identifying small deletions, they do not provide significantly better breakpoint resolution. In contrast, large inserts are superior to short inserts in providing higher physical genome coverage for the same sequencing cost and achieve greater sensitivity, in practice, for the identification of several classes of SVs, such as copy number neutral and complex events. Furthermore, our results confirm that large insert libraries allow for the identification of SVs within repetitive sequences, which cannot be spanned by short inserts. This provides a key advantage in studying rearrangements in cancer, and we show how it can be used in a fusion-point-guided-concatenation algorithm to study focally amplified regions in cancer.

A common BIM deletion polymorphism mediates intrinsic resistance and inferior responses to tyrosine kinase inhibitors in cancer.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) elicit high response rates among individuals with kinase-driven malignancies, including chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer (EGFR NSCLC). However, the extent and duration of these responses are heterogeneous, suggesting the existence of genetic modifiers affecting an individual's response to TKIs. Using paired-end DNA sequencing, we discovered a common intronic deletion polymorphism in the gene encoding BCL2-like 11 (BIM). BIM is a pro-apoptotic member of the B-cell CLL/lymphoma 2 (BCL2) family of proteins, and its upregulation is required for TKIs to induce apoptosis in kinase-driven cancers. The polymorphism switched BIM splicing from exon 4 to exon 3, which resulted in expression of BIM isoforms lacking the pro-apoptotic BCL2-homology domain 3 (BH3). The polymorphism was sufficient to confer intrinsic TKI resistance in CML and EGFR NSCLC cell lines, but this resistance could be overcome with BH3-mimetic drugs. Notably, individuals with CML and EGFR NSCLC harboring the polymorphism experienced significantly inferior responses to TKIs than did individuals without the polymorphism (P = 0.02 for CML and P = 0.027 for EGFR NSCLC). Our results offer an explanation for the heterogeneity of TKI responses across individuals and suggest the possibility of personalizing therapy with BH3 mimetics to overcome BIM-polymorphism-associated TKI resistance.

CTCF-mediated functional chromatin interactome in pluripotent cells.

Mammalian genomes are viewed as functional organizations that orchestrate spatial and temporal gene regulation. CTCF, the most characterized insulator-binding protein, has been implicated as a key genome organizer. However, little is known about CTCF-associated higher-order chromatin structures at a global scale. Here we applied chromatin interaction analysis by paired-end tag (ChIA-PET) sequencing to elucidate the CTCF-chromatin interactome in pluripotent cells. From this analysis, we identified 1,480 cis- and 336 trans-interacting loci with high reproducibility and precision. Associating these chromatin interaction loci with their underlying epigenetic states, promoter activities, enhancer binding and nuclear lamina occupancy, we uncovered five distinct chromatin domains that suggest potential new models of CTCF function in chromatin organization and transcriptional control. Specifically, CTCF interactions demarcate chromatin-nuclear membrane attachments and influence proper gene expression through extensive cross-talk between promoters and regulatory elements. This highly complex nuclear organization offers insights toward the unifying principles that govern genome plasticity and function.

Transcriptional consequences of genomic structural aberrations in breast cancer.

Using a long-span, paired-end deep sequencing strategy, we have comprehensively identified cancer genome rearrangements in eight breast cancer genomes. Herein, we show that 40%-54% of these structural genomic rearrangements result in different forms of fusion transcripts and that 44% are potentially translated. We find that single segmental tandem duplication spanning several genes is a major source of the fusion gene transcripts in both cell lines and primary tumors involving adjacent genes placed in the reverse-order position by the duplication event. Certain other structural mutations, however, tend to attenuate gene expression. From these candidate gene fusions, we have found a fusion transcript (RPS6KB1-VMP1) recurrently expressed in ∼30% of breast cancers associated with potential clinical consequences. This gene fusion is caused by tandem duplication on 17q23 and appears to be an indicator of local genomic instability altering the expression of oncogenic components such as MIR21 and RPS6KB1.

Comprehensive long-span paired-end-tag mapping reveals characteristic patterns of structural variations in epithelial cancer genomes.

Somatic genome rearrangements are thought to play important roles in cancer development. We optimized a long-span paired-end-tag (PET) sequencing approach using 10-Kb genomic DNA inserts to study human genome structural variations (SVs). The use of a 10-Kb insert size allows the identification of breakpoints within repetitive or homology-containing regions of a few kilobases in size and results in a higher physical coverage compared with small insert libraries with the same sequencing effort. We have applied this approach to comprehensively characterize the SVs of 15 cancer and two noncancer genomes and used a filtering approach to strongly enrich for somatic SVs in the cancer genomes. Our analyses revealed that most inversions, deletions, and insertions are germ-line SVs, whereas tandem duplications, unpaired inversions, interchromosomal translocations, and complex rearrangements are over-represented among somatic rearrangements in cancer genomes. We demonstrate that the quantitative and connective nature of DNA-PET data is precise in delineating the genealogy of complex rearrangement events, we observe signatures that are compatible with breakage-fusion-bridge cycles, and we discover that large duplications are among the initial rearrangements that trigger genome instability for extensive amplification in epithelial cancers.

An oestrogen-receptor-alpha-bound human chromatin interactome.

Genomes are organized into high-level three-dimensional structures, and DNA elements separated by long genomic distances can in principle interact functionally. Many transcription factors bind to regulatory DNA elements distant from gene promoters. Although distal binding sites have been shown to regulate transcription by long-range chromatin interactions at a few loci, chromatin interactions and their impact on transcription regulation have not been investigated in a genome-wide manner. Here we describe the development of a new strategy, chromatin interaction analysis by paired-end tag sequencing (ChIA-PET) for the de novo detection of global chromatin interactions, with which we have comprehensively mapped the chromatin interaction network bound by oestrogen receptor alpha (ER-alpha) in the human genome. We found that most high-confidence remote ER-alpha-binding sites are anchored at gene promoters through long-range chromatin interactions, suggesting that ER-alpha functions by extensive chromatin looping to bring genes together for coordinated transcriptional regulation. We propose that chromatin interactions constitute a primary mechanism for regulating transcription in mammalian genomes.

Reprogramming of fibroblasts into induced pluripotent stem cells with orphan nuclear receptor Esrrb.

The dominant effect of transcription factors in imparting expanded potency is best exemplified by the reprogramming of fibroblasts to pluripotent cells using retrovirus-mediated transduction of defined transcription factors. In the murine system, Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc and Klf4 are sufficient to convert fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells that have many characteristics of embryonic stem (ES) cells. Here we show that the orphan nuclear receptor Esrrb functions in conjunction with Oct4 and Sox2 to mediate reprogramming of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) to iPS cells. Esrrb-reprogrammed cells share similar expression and epigenetic signatures as ES cells. These cells are also pluripotent and can differentiate in vitro and in vivo into the three major embryonic cell lineages. Furthermore, these cells contribute to mouse chimaeras and are germline transmissible. In ES cells, Esrrb targets many genes involved in self-renewal and pluripotency. This suggests that Esrrb may mediate reprogramming through the upregulation of ES-cell-specific genes. Our findings also indicate that it is possible to reprogram MEFs without exogenous Klf transcription factors and link a nuclear receptor to somatic cell reprogramming.