Expressed pseudogenes in the transcriptional landscape of human cancers

Incorporating the human gene annotations in different databases significantly improved transcriptomic and genetic analyses

Human gene annotation is crucial for conducting transcriptomic and genetic studies; however, the impacts of human gene annotations in diverse databases on related studies have been less evaluated. To enable full use of various human annotation resources and better understand the human transcriptome, here we systematically compare the human annotations present in RefSeq, Ensembl (GENCODE), and AceView on diverse transcriptomic and genetic analyses. We found that the human gene annotations in the three databases are far from complete. Although Ensembl and AceView annotated more genes than RefSeq, more than 15,800 genes from Ensembl (or AceView) are within the intergenic and intronic regions of AceView (or Ensembl) annotation. The human transcriptome annotations in RefSeq, Ensembl, and AceView had distinct effects on short-read mapping, gene and isoform expression profiling, and differential expression calling. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the integrated annotation of these databases can obtain a more complete gene set and significantly enhance those transcriptomic analyses. We also observed that many more known SNPs were located within genes annotated in Ensembl and AceView than in RefSeq. In particular, 1033 of 3041 trait/disease-associated SNPs involved in about 200 human traits/diseases that were previously reported to be in RefSeq intergenic regions could be relocated within Ensembl and AceView genes. Our findings illustrate that a more complete transcriptome generated by incorporating human gene annotations in diverse databases can strikingly improve the overall results of transcriptomic and genetic studies.

Pseudogenes: pseudo or real functional elements?

Pseudogenes are genomic remnants of ancient protein-coding genes which have lost their coding potentials through evolution. Although broadly existed, pseudogenes used to be considered as junk or relics of genomes which have not drawn enough attentions of biologists until recent years. With the broad applications of high-throughput experimental techniques, growing lines of evidence have strongly suggested that some pseudogenes possess special functions, including regulating parental gene expression and participating in the regulation of many biological processes. In this review, we summarize some basic features of pseudogenes and their functions in regulating development and diseases. All of these observations indicate that pseudogenes are not purely dead fossils of genomes, but warrant further exploration in their distribution, expression regulation and functions. A new nomenclature is desirable for the currently called 'pseudogenes' to better describe their functions.

Retrotransposition of gene transcripts leads to structural variation in mammalian genomes

BACKGROUND

Retroposed processed gene transcripts are an important source of material for new gene formation on evolutionary timescales. Most prior work on gene retrocopy discovery compared copies in reference genome assemblies to their source genes. Here, we explore gene retrocopy insertion polymorphisms (GRIPs) that are present in the germlines of individual humans, mice, and chimpanzees, and we identify novel gene retrocopy insertions in cancerous somatic tissues that are absent from patient-matched non-cancer genomes.

RESULTS

Through analysis of whole-genome sequence data, we found evidence for 48 GRIPs in the genomes of one or more humans sequenced as part of the 1,000 Genomes Project and The Cancer Genome Atlas, but which were not in the human reference assembly. Similarly, we found evidence for 755 GRIPs at distinct locations in one or more of 17 inbred mouse strains but which were not in the mouse reference assembly, and 19 GRIPs across a cohort of 10 chimpanzee genomes, which were not in the chimpanzee reference genome assembly. Many of these insertions are new members of existing gene families whose source genes are highly and widely expressed, and the majority have detectable hallmarks of processed gene retrocopy formation. We estimate the rate of novel gene retrocopy insertions in humans and chimps at roughly one new gene retrocopy insertion for every 6,000 individuals.

CONCLUSIONS

We find that gene retrocopy polymorphisms are a widespread phenomenon, present a multi-species analysis of these events, and provide a method for their ascertainment.

Outlier kinase expression by RNA sequencing as targets for precision therapy

Protein kinases represent the most effective class of therapeutic targets in cancer; therefore, determination of kinase aberrations is a major focus of cancer genomic studies. Here, we analyzed transcriptome sequencing data from a compendium of 482 cancer and benign samples from 25 different tissue types, and defined distinct "outlier kinases" in individual breast and pancreatic cancer samples, based on highest levels of absolute and differential expression. Frequent outlier kinases in breast cancer included therapeutic targets like ERBB2 and FGFR4, distinct from MET, AKT2, and PLK2 in pancreatic cancer. Outlier kinases imparted sample-specific dependencies in various cell lines, as tested by siRNA knockdown and/or pharmacologic inhibition. Outlier expression of polo-like kinases was observed in a subset of KRAS-dependent pancreatic cancer cell lines, and conferred increased sensitivity to the pan-PLK inhibitor BI-6727. Our results suggest that outlier kinases represent effective precision therapeutic targets that are readily identifiable through RNA sequencing of tumors.

Regulation and dysregulation of 3'UTR-mediated translational control

Translational control provides numerous advantages in regulation of gene expression including rapid responsiveness, intracellular localization, nondestruction of template mRNA, and coordinated regulation of transcript ensembles. Transcript-selective, translational control is driven by the specific interaction of factor(s) with the 5' or 3' untranslated region (UTR), thereby influencing initiation, elongation, or termination of mRNA translation. The mean length of human 3'UTRs is greater than that of 5'UTR, indicating the expanded potential for motifs, structural elements, and binding sites for trans-acting factors that exert transcript-selective translation control. New and unexpected mechanisms of 3'UTR-mediated translational control and their contributions to disease have received increasing attention during the last decade. Here, we briefly review a few recent and representative discoveries of 3'UTR-mediated translational control, emphasizing the novel aspects of these regulatory mechanisms and their potential pathophysiological significance.

Differentially expressed, variant U1 snRNAs regulate gene expression in human cells

Human U1 small nuclear (sn)RNA, required for splicing of pre-mRNA, is encoded by genes on chromosome 1 (1p36). Imperfect copies of these U1 snRNA genes, also located on chromosome 1 (1q12-21), were thought to be pseudogenes. However, many of these "variant" (v)U1 snRNA genes produce fully processed transcripts. Using antisense oligonucleotides to block the activity of a specific vU1 snRNA in HeLa cells, we have identified global transcriptome changes following interrogation of the Affymetrix Human Exon ST 1.0 array. Our results indicate that this vU1 snRNA regulates expression of a subset of target genes at the level of pre-mRNA processing. This is the first indication that variant U1 snRNAs have a biological function in vivo. Furthermore, some vU1 snRNAs are packaged into unique ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), and many vU1 snRNA genes are differentially expressed in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and HeLa cells, suggesting developmental control of RNA processing through expression of different sets of vU1 snRNPs.

Candida albicans: A Model Organism for Studying Fungal Pathogens

Candida albicans is an opportunistic human fungal pathogen that causes candidiasis. As healthcare has been improved worldwide, the number of immunocompromised patients has been increased to a greater extent and they are highly susceptible to various pathogenic microbes and C. albicans has been prominent among the fungal pathogens. The complete genome sequence of this pathogen is now available and has been extremely useful for the identification of repertoire of genes present in this pathogen. The major challenge is now to assign the functions to these genes of which 13% are specific to C. albicans. Due to its close relationship with yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, an edge over other fungal pathogens because most of the technologies can be directly transferred to C. albicans from S. cerevisiae and it is amenable to mutation, gene disruption, and transformation. The last two decades have witnessed enormous amount of research activities on this pathogen that leads to the understanding of host-parasite interaction, infections, and disease propagation. Clearly, C. albicans has emerged as a model organism for studying fungal pathogens along with other two fungi Aspergillus fumigatus and Cryptococcus neoformans. Understanding its complete life style of C. albicans will undoubtedly be useful for developing potential antifungal drugs and tackling Candida infections. This will also shed light on the functioning of other fungal pathogens.

Pseudogenes: newly discovered players in human cancer

Because they are generally noncoding and thus considered nonfunctional and unimportant, pseudogenes have long been neglected. Recent advances have established that the DNA of a pseudogene, the RNA transcribed from a pseudogene, or the protein translated from a pseudogene can have multiple, diverse functions and that these functions can affect not only their parental genes but also unrelated genes. Therefore, pseudogenes have emerged as a previously unappreciated class of sophisticated modulators of gene expression, with a multifaceted involvement in the pathogenesis of human cancer.