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SummaryDNA base damage is a major source of oncogenic mutations1. Such damage can produce strand-phased mutation patterns and multiallelic variation through the process of lesion segregation2. Here, we exploited these properties to reveal how strand-asymmetric processes, such as replication and transcription, shape DNA damage and repair. Despite distinct mechanisms of leading and lagging strand replication3,4, we observe identical fidelity and damage tolerance for both strands. For small DNA adducts, our results support a model in which the same translesion polymerase is recruited on-the-fly to both replication strands, starkly contrasting the strand asymmetric tolerance of bulky adducts5. We find that DNA damage tolerance is also common during transcription, where RNA-polymerases frequently bypass lesions without triggering repair. At multiple genomic scales, we show the pattern of DNA damage induced mutations is largely shaped by the influence of DNA accessibility on repair efficiency, rather than gradients of DNA damage. Finally, we reveal specific genomic conditions that can corrupt the fidelity of nucleotide excision repair and actively drive oncogenic mutagenesis. These results provide insight into how strand-asymmetric mechanisms underlie the formation, tolerance, and repair of DNA damage, thereby shaping cancer genome evolution.

Many transposable elements (TEs) contain transcription factor binding sites and are implicated as potential regulatory elements. However, TEs are rarely functionally tested for regulatory activity, which in turn limits our understanding of how TE regulatory activity has evolved. We systematically tested the human LTR18A subfamily for regulatory activity using massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA) and found AP-1- and CEBP-related binding motifs as drivers of enhancer activity. Functional analysis of evolutionarily reconstructed ancestral sequences revealed that LTR18A elements have generally lost regulatory activity over time through sequence changes, with the largest effects occurring owing to mutations in the AP-1 and CEBP motifs. We observed that the two motifs are conserved at higher rates than expected based on neutral evolution. Finally, we identified LTR18A elements as potential enhancers in the human genome, primarily in epithelial cells. Together, our results provide a model for the origin, evolution, and co-option of TE-derived regulatory elements.

Many transposable elements (TEs) contain transcription factor binding sites and are implicated as potential regulatory elements. However, TEs are rarely functionally tested for regulatory activity, which in turn limits our understanding of how TE regulatory activity has evolved. We systematically tested the human LTR18A subfamily for regulatory activity using massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA) and found AP-1 and C/EBP-related binding motifs as drivers of enhancer activity. Functional analysis of evolutionarily reconstructed ancestral sequences revealed that LTR18A elements have generally lost regulatory activity over time through sequence changes, with the largest effects occurring due to mutations in the AP-1 and C/EBP motifs. We observed that the two motifs are conserved at higher rates than expected based on neutral evolution. Finally, we identified LTR18A elements as potential enhancers in the human genome, primarily in epithelial cells. Together, our results provide a model for the origin, evolution, and co-option of TE-derived regulatory elements.

Cancer is a global health issue that places enormous demands on healthcare systems. Basic research, the development of targeted treatments, and the utility of DNA sequencing in clinical settings, have been significantly improved with the introduction of whole genome sequencing. However the broad applications of this technology come with complications. To date there has been very little standardisation in how data quality is assessed, leading to inconsistencies in analyses and disparate conclusions. Manual checking and complex consensus calling strategies often do not scale to large sample numbers, which leads to procedural bottlenecks. To address this issue, we present a quality control method that integrates somatic point mutations, allele-specific copy numbers, and tumour purity into a single quantitative score. We demonstrate its power via simulations, and on 𝑛 = 2778 whole-genomes from PCAWG, on 𝑛 = 10 multi-region whole-genomes of two colorectal cancers and on 𝑛 = 48 whole-exomes from TCGA. Our approach significantly improves the generation of cancer mutation data, providing visualisations for cross-referencing with other analyses. The method is fully automated and designed to be compatible with any bioinformatic pipeline, and can automatise tool parameterization paving the way for fast computational assessment of data quality in the era of whole genome sequencing.

Purpose In Trinidad and Tobago (TT), prostate cancer (CaP) is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy and the leading cause of cancer deaths among men. TT currently has one of the highest CaP mortality rates in the world. Methods 6,064 incident and 3,704 mortality cases of CaP occurring in TT from January 1995 to 31 December 2009 reported to the Dr. Elizabeth Quamina Cancer population-based cancer registry for TT, were analyzed to examine CaP survival, incidence, and mortality rates and trends by ancestry and geography. Results The age-standardized CaP incidence and mortality rates (per 100,000) based on the 1960 world-standardized in 2009 were 64.2 and 47.1 per 100,000. The mortality rate in TT increased between 1995 (37.9 per 100,000) and 2009 (79.4 per 100,000), while the rate in the US decreased from 37.3 per 100,000 to 22.1 per 100,000 over the same period. Fewer African ancestry patients received treatment relative to those of Indian and mixed ancestry (45.7%, 60.3%, and 60.9%, respectively). Conclusions Notwithstanding the limitations surrounding data quality, our findings highlight the increasing burden of CaP in TT and the need for improved surveillance and standard of care. Our findings highlight the need for optimized models to project cancer rates in developing countries like TT. This study also provides the rationale for targeted screening and optimized treatment for CaP to ameliorate the rates we report. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10552-018-1038-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Aberrant DNA hypomethylation may play an important role in the growth rate of glioblastoma (GBM), but the functional impact on transcription remains poorly understood. We assayed the GBM methylome with MeDIP-seq and MRE-seq, adjusting for copy number differences, in a small set of non-glioma CpG island methylator phenotype (non-G-CIMP) primary tumors. Recurrent hypomethylated loci were enriched within a region of chromosome 5p15 that is specified as a cancer amplicon and also encompasses TERT, encoding telomerase reverse transcriptase, which plays a critical role in tumorigenesis. Overall, 76 gene body promoters were recurrently hypomethylated, including TERT and the oncogenes GLI3 and TP73. Recurring hypomethylation also affected previously unannotated alternative promoters, and luciferase reporter assays for three of four of these promoters confirmed strong promoter activity in GBM cells. Histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) ChIP-seq on tissue from the GBMs uncovered peaks that coincide precisely with tumor-specific decrease of DNA methylation at 200 loci, 133 of which are in gene bodies. Detailed investigation of TP73 and TERT gene body hypomethylation demonstrated increased expression of corresponding alternate transcripts, which in TP73 encodes a truncated p73 protein with oncogenic function and in TERT encodes a putative reverse transcriptase-null protein. Our findings suggest that recurring gene body promoter hypomethylation events, along with histone H3K4 trimethylation, alter the transcriptional landscape of GBM through the activation of a limited number of normally silenced promoters within gene bodies, in at least one case leading to expression of an oncogenic protein.

DNA methylation plays key roles in diverse biological processes such as X chromosome inactivation, transposable element repression, genomic imprinting, and tissue-specific gene expression. Sequencing-based DNA methylation profiling provides an unprecedented opportunity to map and compare complete DNA methylomes. This includes one of the most widely applied technologies for measuring DNA methylation: methylated DNA immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (MeDIP-seq), coupled with a complementary method, methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme sequencing (MRE-seq). A computational approach that integrates data from these two different but complementary assays and predicts methylation differences between samples has been unavailable. Here, we present a novel integrative statistical framework M&M (for integration of MeDIP-seq and MRE-seq) that dynamically scales, normalizes, and combines MeDIP-seq and MRE-seq data to detect differentially methylated regions. Using sample-matched whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) as a gold standard, we demonstrate superior accuracy and reproducibility of M&M compared to existing analytical methods for MeDIP-seq data alone. M&M leverages the complementary nature of MeDIP-seq and MRE-seq data to allow rapid comparative analysis between whole methylomes at a fraction of the cost of WGBS. Comprehensive analysis of nineteen human DNA methylomes with M&M reveals distinct DNA methylation patterns among different tissue types, cell types, and individuals, potentially underscoring divergent epigenetic regulation at different scales of phenotypic diversity. We find that differential DNA methylation at enhancer elements, with concurrent changes in histone modifications and transcription factor binding, is common at the cell, tissue, and individual levels, whereas promoter methylation is more prominent in reinforcing fundamental tissue identities.

Transposable elements (TEs) are no longer considered to be ‘junk’ DNA. Here, we review how TEs can impact gene regulation systematically. TEs encode various regulatory elements that enables them to regulate gene expression. RJ Britten and EH Davidson hypothesised that TEs can integrate the function of various transcriptional regulators into gene regulatory networks. Uniquely TEs can deposit regulatory sites across the genome when they transpose, and thereby bring multiple genes under control of the same regulatory logic. Several studies together have robustly established that TEs participate in embryonic development, and oncogenesis. We discuss the regulatory characteristics of TEs in context of evolution to understand the extent of their impact on gene networks. Understanding these features of TEs is central to future investigations of TEs in cellular processes and phenotypic presentations, which are applicable to development and disease studies. We re-visit the Britten-Davidson ‘gene-battery’ model and understand the genetic and transcriptional impact of TEs in innovating gene regulatory networks.

Transposable elements (TEs) have been shown to contain functional binding sites for certain transcription factors (TFs). However, the extent to which TEs contribute to the evolution of TF binding sites is not well known. We comprehensively mapped binding sites for 26 pairs of orthologous TFs in two pairs of human and mouse cell lines (representing two cell lineages), along with epigenomic profiles, including DNA methylation and six histone modifications. Overall, we found that 20% of binding sites were embedded within TEs. This number varied across different TFs, ranging from 2% to 40%. We further identified 710 TF–TE relationships in which genomic copies of a TE subfamily contributed a significant number of binding peaks for a TF, and we found that LTR elements dominated these relationships in human. Importantly, TE-derived binding peaks were strongly associated with open and active chromatin signatures, including reduced DNA methylation and increased enhancer-associated histone marks. On average, 66% of TE-derived binding events were cell type-specific with a cell type-specific epigenetic landscape. Most of the binding sites contributed by TEs were species-specific, but we also identified binding sites conserved between human and mouse, the functional relevance of which was supported by a signature of purifying selection on DNA sequences of these TEs. Interestingly, several TFs had significantly expanded binding site landscapes only in one species, which were linked to species-specific gene functions, suggesting that TEs are an important driving force for regulatory innovation. Taken together, our data suggest that TEs have significantly and continuously shaped gene regulatory networks during mammalian evolution.

Background Aberrant DNA methylation is a hallmark of many cancers. Classically there are two types of endometrial cancer, endometrioid adenocarcinoma (EAC), or Type I, and uterine papillary serous carcinoma (UPSC), or Type II. However, the whole genome DNA methylation changes in these two classical types of endometrial cancer is still unknown. Results Here we described complete genome-wide DNA methylome maps of EAC, UPSC, and normal endometrium by applying a combined strategy of methylated DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeDIP-seq) and methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme digestion sequencing (MRE-seq). We discovered distinct genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in EAC and UPSC: 27,009 and 15,676 recurrent differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were identified respectively, compared with normal endometrium. Over 80% of DMRs were in intergenic and intronic regions. The majority of these DMRs were not interrogated on the commonly used Infinium 450K array platform. Large-scale demethylation of chromosome X was detected in UPSC, accompanied by decreased XIST expression. Importantly, we discovered that the majority of the DMRs harbored promoter or enhancer functions and are specifically associated with genes related to uterine development and disease. Among these, abnormal methylation of transposable elements (TEs) may provide a novel mechanism to deregulate normal endometrium-specific enhancers derived from specific TEs. Conclusions DNA methylation changes are an important signature of endometrial cancer and regulate gene expression by affecting not only proximal promoters but also distal enhancers. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-868) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Carcinogenesis results from aberrations in gene regulatory networks at the genetic and epigenetic levels. Epigenetic changes such as global hypomethylation along with hypermethylated tumor-suppressor gene promoters are hallmarks of many cancers. Transposable elements (TEs) constitute the majority of non-coding sequence in the human genome and 50% of the total human genome sequence; they are thought to be suppressed by DNA methylation in somatic tissues. TEs often carry transcription factor binding sites and can function as transcriptional enhancers. Mis-regulation of DNA methylation can lead to abnormal gene activity from TE-based enhancers. Although many studies have profiled cancer DNA methylomes, there has not been a focused study to investigate the changes in TE DNA methylation in cancer and its effect on cancer gene expression. We hypothesize that mis-expression of genes from TE-based enhancers contributes to carcinogenesis. To test this hypothesis, we generated complete DNA methylomes of endometrial cancer samples and the matched normal tissue. We then used computational algorithms to identify differentially methylated transposon subfamilies. Our approach consists of using two complementary sequencing-based methods to map the DNA methylomes (MeDIP-seq and MRE-seq). To map unmethylated sites at single CpG resolution, we sequence DNA, digested by three methylation-sensitive restriction enzymes (MRE). We use the HpaII (C^CGG), Hin6I (G^CGC) and AciI (C^CGC) enzymes to access a very large fraction of potentially non-methylated CpG sites. In addition, to map methylated regions we use an anti-methylcytosine antibody to immunoprecipitate the methylated fraction of DNA fragments and then sequence them. Analyses of sequencing data, generally discards reads that map to repetitive regions in the genome, thus significantly reducing our ability to investigate TEs. Our computational approach, harnesses reads that map to repetitive regions by re-aligning them to TE subfamilies. We then measure the enrichment of reads for each TE subfamily from both the sequencing methods, in the cancer tissue compared to the matched normal tissue. Our findings reveal that, as expected, TEs in normal endometrial tissues are mostly methylated. However, contrary to the common belief, we found that majority of TEs remain methylated in endometrial cancer samples. A few dozen TE subfamilies, including several ERV/LTR subfamilies (endogeneous retrovirus) are demethylated. More interestingly, when we compare our three type I cancer samples with the three type II cancer samples, we detect a clear cancer type-specific, TE-subfamily-specific DNA demethylation pattern. This observation, coupled with the idea that different TE subfamilies may encode different enhancer elements, suggests that demethylated TEs may rewire cancer type-specific gene regulatory networks and contribute to cancer-specific phenotypes. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-379. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-LB-379

Table S1. Basis of diagnosis for all cancer cases recorded in the National Cancer Registry of TT, 1995â 2009. (DOCX 14 kb)

Table S1. Basis of diagnosis for all cancer cases recorded in the National Cancer Registry of TT, 1995â 2009. (DOCX 14 kb)

Table S2. Age-standardized incidence and mortality rates for two of the ten leading cancer sites by sex, and ancestry, for persons less than 24Â years old, Trinidad and Tobago, 1995â 2009. (DOCX 15 kb)

Table S2. Age-standardized incidence and mortality rates for two of the ten leading cancer sites by sex, and ancestry, for persons less than 24Â years old, Trinidad and Tobago, 1995â 2009. (DOCX 15 kb)