IsoSel: Protein Isoform Selector for phylogenetic reconstructions.

The reliability of molecular phylogenies is strongly dependent on the quality of the assembled datasets. In the case of eukaryotes, the selection of only one protein isoform per genomic locus is mandatory to avoid biases linked to redundancy. Here, we present IsoSel, a tool devoted to the selection of alternative isoforms in the context of phylogenetic reconstruction. It provides a better alternative to the widely used approach consisting in the selection of the longest isoforms and it performs better than Guidance, its only available counterpart. IsoSel is publicly available at http://doua.prabi.fr/software/isosel.

Evolutionary history of phosphatidylinositol- 3-kinases: ancestral origin in eukaryotes and complex duplication patterns.

BACKGROUND: Phosphatidylinositol-3-kinases (PI3Ks) are a family of eukaryotic enzymes modifying phosphoinositides in phosphatidylinositols-3-phosphate. Located upstream of the AKT/mTOR signalling pathway, PI3Ks activate secondary messengers of extracellular signals. They are involved in many critical cellular processes such as cell survival, angiogenesis and autophagy. PI3K family is divided into three classes, including 14 human homologs. While class II enzymes are composed of a single catalytic subunit, class I and III also contain regulatory subunits. Here we present an in-depth phylogenetic analysis of all PI3K proteins. RESULTS: We confirmed that PI3K catalytic subunits form a monophyletic group, whereas regulatory subunits form three distinct groups. The phylogeny of the catalytic subunits indicates that they underwent two major duplications during their evolutionary history: the most ancient arose in the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA) and led to the emergence of class III and class I/II, while the second - that led to the separation between class I and II - occurred later, in the ancestor of Unikonta (i.e., the clade grouping Amoebozoa, Fungi, and Metazoa). These two major events were followed by many lineage specific duplications in particular in vertebrates, but also in various protist lineages. Major loss events were also detected in Vidiriplantae and Fungi. For the regulatory subunits, we identified homologs of class III in all eukaryotic groups indicating that, for this class, both the catalytic and the regulatory subunits were presents in LECA. In contrast, homologs of the regulatory class I have a more recent origin. CONCLUSIONS: The phylogenetic analysis of the PI3K shed a new light on the evolutionary history of these enzymes. We found that LECA already contained a PI3K class III composed of a catalytic and a regulatory subunit. Absence of class II regulatory subunits and the recent origin of class I regulatory subunits is puzzling given that the class I/II catalytic subunit was present in LECA and has been conserved in most present-day eukaryotic lineages. We also found surprising major loss and duplication events in various eukaryotic lineages. Given the functional specificity of PI3K proteins, this suggests dynamic adaptation during the diversification of eukaryotes.

Prediction of desmoid tumor progression using miRNA expression profiling.

Desmoid tumor is a rare connective tissue tumor with locoregional aggressiveness but unpredictable behavior. The miRNA profile was ascertained for 26 patients included in the Desminib phase II trial and an independent validation cohort of 15 patients. Predictive and prognostic supervised analysis on the Desminib cohort failed to identify miRNAs differentially expressed between progressive and non-progressive patients under imatinib treatment or between progressive and non-progressive patients after discontinuation of imatinib. However, an unsupervised hierarchical clustering of the Desminib cohort identified two groups (A and B) of 13 patients each, where only the number of previous lines of treatment before inclusion in the study differed significantly between the two groups. Time to progression after discontinuation of imatinib was longer in group B than in group A. Fifteen miRNAs were highly statistically differentially expressed between groups A and B, targeting more than 3000 genes, including AGO1, BCL2, CDK6, SMAD4, PTEN, CCND1, VEGFA, and RB1. These results were confirmed in the independent validation cohort: hierarchical clustering of these 15 miRNAs identified two groups, in which time to recurrence was statistically different (28.8 months vs 68.8 months). These results provide the first indication of the prognostic value of miRNA expression profiling with a possible direct impact on patient management. A more precise miRNA signature must now be determined to select patients who would not benefit from surgical resection of their tumor and who ought to be monitored without treatment.

Impact of KIT exon 10 M541L allelic variant on the response to imatinib in aggressive fibromatosis: analysis of the desminib series by competitive allele specific Taqman PCR technology.

BACKGROUND: Aggressive fibromatosis (AF) is a rare fibroblastic proliferative disease with a locally aggressive behavior and no distant metastasis, characterized by driver mutations in CTNNB1 or the APC gene. When progressive and/or symptomatic AF is not amenable to local management, a variety of medical treatments may be efficient, including imatinib mesylate. The phase II "Desminib trial" included 40 patients with AF to evaluate the toxicity and efficacy of imatinib resulting in a 65% tumor control rate at 1 year. We investigated a potential predictive value of KIT exon 10 M541L variant (KITL541) on this prospective series. METHODS: DNA was extracted in sufficient quantity from 33 patients included in the Desminib trial. The detection of KITL541 was performed by Competitive Allele-Specific Taqman® PCR technology. Chi-2 analyses were performed to search for a correlation between KIT status and tumor response. Progression free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared by log-rank test after Kaplan-Meier analysis. RESULTS: In 6 out of 33 cases (18%), the technique failed to determine the mutational status; 5 patients (19%) harboured KITL541 and 22 patients (81%) were classified as KIT wild type. Compared with total cohort, KITL541 frequency did not distinguish between different clinical characteristics. In the KITL541 and the KITWT subgroups, the tumor control rate at 1 year was 100% and 68%, respectively (p = 0.316). The median PFS of patients harboring KITL541 or not is 29.9 and 24.5 months, respectively (p = 0.616), and the median OS is not reached, in any of the groups. CONCLUSION: Our results do not support a predictive effect of KITL541 on the efficacy of imatinib for patients with AF.