Department of Biology, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70125 Italy
Institute for Biomedical Technologies, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Segrate, 20090 Italy.
Genetics. 2018 Mar;208(3):951-961. doi: 10.1534/genetics.117.300552. Epub 2017 Dec 26.
Genome amplification in the form of rings or giant rod-shaped marker chromosomes (RGMs) is a common genetic alteration in soft tissue tumors. The mitotic stability of these structures is often rescued by perfectly functioning analphoid neocentromeres, which therefore significantly contribute to cancer progression. Here, we disentangled the genomic architecture of many neocentromeres stabilizing marker chromosomes in well-differentiated liposarcoma and lung sarcomatoid carcinoma samples. In cells carrying heavily rearranged RGMs, these structures were assembled as patchworks of multiple short amplified sequences, disclosing an extremely high level of complexity and definitely ruling out the existence of regions prone to neocentromere seeding. Moreover, by studying two well-differentiated liposarcoma samples derived from the onset and the recurrence of the same tumor, we documented an expansion of the neocentromeric domain that occurred during tumor progression, which reflects a strong selective pressure acting toward the improvement of the neocentromeric functionality in cancer. In lung sarcomatoid carcinoma cells we documented, extensive "centromere sliding" phenomena giving rise to multiple, closely mapping neocentromeric epialleles on separate coexisting markers occur, likely due to the instability of neocentromeres arising in cancer cells. Finally, by investigating the transcriptional activity of neocentromeres, we came across a burst of chimeric transcripts, both by extremely complex genomic rearrangements, and /-splicing events. Post-transcriptional editing events have been reported to expand and variegate the genetic repertoire of higher eukaryotes, so they might have a determining role in cancer. The increased incidence of fusion transcripts, might act as a driving force for the genomic amplification process, together with the increased transcription of oncogenes.
环状或巨大棒状标记染色体(RGMs)形式的基因组扩增是软组织肿瘤中常见的遗传改变。这些结构的有丝分裂稳定性通常通过功能完善的无着丝粒亚中心拯救,因此它们对癌症进展有重大贡献。在这里,我们梳理了在分化良好的脂肪肉瘤和肺肉瘤样癌样本中稳定标记染色体的许多新中心体的基因组结构。在携带重排 RGM 的细胞中,这些结构作为多个短扩增序列的拼贴组装,揭示了极高的复杂性,并且肯定排除了存在易发生新中心体播种的区域。此外,通过研究两个来自同一肿瘤起始和复发的分化良好的脂肪肉瘤样本,我们记录了新中心体域在肿瘤进展过程中的扩张,这反映了在癌症中新中心体功能改善的强烈选择压力。在肺肉瘤样癌细胞中,我们记录了广泛的“着丝粒滑动”现象,导致多个紧密映射的新中心体等位基因出现在单独共存的标记上,这可能是由于癌细胞中新中心体的不稳定性所致。最后,通过研究新中心体的转录活性,我们遇到了大量的嵌合转录本,包括通过极其复杂的基因组重排和/或剪接事件。据报道,转录后编辑事件会扩展和多样化真核生物的遗传库,因此它们可能在癌症中起决定性作用。融合转录本的发生率增加,可能与癌基因的转录增加一起,作为基因组扩增过程的驱动力。