Short tandem repeat mutations regulate gene expression in colorectal cancer.


Journal

Scientific reports
ISSN: 2045-2322
Titre abrégé: Sci Rep
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101563288

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
09 Feb 2024
Historique:
received: 15 12 2023
accepted: 04 02 2024
medline: 10 2 2024
pubmed: 10 2 2024
entrez: 9 2 2024
Statut: epublish

Résumé

Short tandem repeat (STR) mutations are prevalent in colorectal cancer (CRC), especially in tumours with the microsatellite instability (MSI) phenotype. While STR length variations are known to regulate gene expression under physiological conditions, the functional impact of STR mutations in CRC remains unclear. Here, we integrate STR mutation data with clinical information and gene expression data to study the gene regulatory effects of STR mutations in CRC. We confirm that STR mutability in CRC highly depends on the MSI status, repeat unit size, and repeat length. Furthermore, we present a set of 1244 putative expression STRs (eSTRs) for which the STR length is associated with gene expression levels in CRC tumours. The length of 73 eSTRs is associated with expression levels of cancer-related genes, nine of which are CRC-specific genes. We show that linear models describing eSTR-gene expression relationships allow for predictions of gene expression changes in response to eSTR mutations. Moreover, we found an increased mutability of eSTRs in MSI tumours. Our evidence of gene regulatory roles for eSTRs in CRC highlights a mostly overlooked way through which tumours may modulate their phenotypes. Future extensions of these findings could uncover new STR-based targets in the treatment of cancer.

Identifiants

pubmed: 38336885
doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-53739-0
pii: 10.1038/s41598-024-53739-0
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

3331

Subventions

Organisme : Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
ID : CRSII5_193832
Organisme : Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
ID : IZSEZ0_203264
Organisme : Horizon 2020
ID : 823886

Informations de copyright

© 2024. The Author(s).

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Auteurs

Max A Verbiest (MA)

Institute of Computational Life Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Wädenswil, Switzerland. max.verbiest@zhaw.ch.
Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. max.verbiest@zhaw.ch.
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland. max.verbiest@zhaw.ch.

Oxana Lundström (O)

Institute of Computational Life Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Wädenswil, Switzerland.
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.

Feifei Xia (F)

Institute of Computational Life Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Wädenswil, Switzerland.
Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Michael Baudis (M)

Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Tugce Bilgin Sonay (T)

Institute of Computational Life Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Wädenswil, Switzerland.
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Institute of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, USA.

Maria Anisimova (M)

Institute of Computational Life Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Wädenswil, Switzerland. maria.anisimova@zhaw.ch.
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland. maria.anisimova@zhaw.ch.

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