Maxi-circles, glycosomes, gene transposition, expression sites, transsplicing, transferrin receptors and base J

Adventures With Parasites, Metabolism, Inborn Errors, and Cancer: The 2023 Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science

In this Viewpoint, Lasker Award winner Piet Borst looks back over a 50-year career in scientific research, including work with trypanosomatids, mechanisms of drug resistance in cancer cells, and inborn errors of metabolism.

Looking back at multidrug resistance (MDR) research and ten mistakes to be avoided when writing about ABC transporters in MDR

This paper presents a personal, selective, and sometimes critical retrospective of the history of ABC transporters in multidrug resistance (MDR) of cancer cells, overrepresenting discoveries of some early pioneers, long forgotten, and highlights of research in Amsterdam, mainly focussing on discoveries made with disruptions of ABC genes in mice (KO mice) and on the role of ABC transporters in causing drug resistance in a mouse model of mammary cancer. The history is complemented by a list of erroneous concepts often found in papers and grant applications submitted anno 2020.

Transcriptional-Readthrough RNAs Reflect the Phenomenon of "A Gene Contains Gene(s)" or "Gene(s) within a Gene" in the Human Genome, and Thus Are Not Chimeric RNAs

Tens of thousands of chimeric RNAs, i.e., RNAs with sequences of two genes, have been identified in human cells. Most of them are formed by two neighboring genes on the same chromosome and are considered to be derived via transcriptional readthrough, but a true readthrough event still awaits more evidence and trans-splicing that joins two transcripts together remains as a possible mechanism. We regard those genomic loci that are transcriptionally read through as unannotated genes, because their transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulations are the same as those of already-annotated genes, including fusion genes formed due to genetic alterations. Therefore, readthrough RNAs and fusion-gene-derived RNAs are not chimeras. Only those two-gene RNAs formed at the RNA level, likely via trans-splicing, without corresponding genes as genomic parents, should be regarded as authentic chimeric RNAs. However, since in human cells, procedural and mechanistic details of trans-splicing have never been disclosed, we doubt the existence of trans-splicing. Therefore, there are probably no authentic chimeras in humans, after readthrough and fusion-gene derived RNAs are all put back into the group of ordinary RNAs. Therefore, it should be further determined whether in human cells all two-neighboring-gene RNAs are derived from transcriptional readthrough and whether trans-splicing truly exists.