Insertional Mutagenesis and Deep Profiling Reveals Gene Hierarchies and a Myc/p53-Dependent Bottleneck in Lymphomagenesis

Retroviral insertional mutagenesis (RIM) is a powerful tool for cancer genomics that was combined in this study with deep sequencing (RIM/DS) to facilitate a comprehensive analysis of lymphoma progression. Transgenic mice expressing two potent collaborating oncogenes in the germ line (CD2-MYC, -Runx2) develop rapid onset tumours that can be accelerated and rendered polyclonal by neonatal Moloney murine leukaemia virus (MoMLV) infection. RIM/DS analysis of 28 polyclonal lymphomas identified 771 common insertion sites (CISs) defining a ‘progression network’ that encompassed a remarkably large fraction of known MoMLV target genes, with further strong indications of oncogenic selection above the background of MoMLV integration preference. Progression driven by RIM was characterised as a Darwinian process of clonal competition engaging proliferation control networks downstream of cytokine and T-cell receptor signalling. Enhancer mode activation accounted for the most efficiently selected CIS target genes, including Ccr7 as the most prominent of a set of chemokine receptors driving paracrine growth stimulation and lymphoma dissemination. Another large target gene subset including candidate tumour suppressors was disrupted by intragenic insertions. A second RIM/DS screen comparing lymphomas of wild-type and parental transgenics showed that CD2-MYC tumours are virtually dependent on activation of Runx family genes in strong preference to other potent Myc collaborating genes (Gfi1, Notch1). Ikzf1 was identified as a novel collaborating gene for Runx2 and illustrated the interface between integration preference and oncogenic selection. Lymphoma target genes for MoMLV can be classified into (a) a small set of master regulators that confer self-renewal; overcoming p53 and other failsafe pathways and (b) a large group of progression genes that control autonomous proliferation in transformed cells. These findings provide insights into retroviral biology, human cancer genetics and the safety of vector-mediated gene therapy.
Author Summary Cancers are known to arise by a series of mutational and non-mutational (epigenetic) events but the advent of cancer genome sequencing highlights the growing challenge of separating important (driver) from irrelevant (passenger) mutations. Retroviruses that induce cancer by inserting into host DNA and thereby altering key genes are valuable tools because they act as ‘tags’ to identify the critical targets. In this study we combined retroviral tagging with next generation sequencing to achieve a comprehensive description of lymphoma development and progression in transgenic mouse model systems. Our study suggests that three events may be sufficient for lymphoma development and identifies a genetic bottleneck at a small gene set that regulates tumour cell self-renewal, including the Myc oncogene and the p53 tumour suppressor. In contrast, many genes can provide the final step where the lymphoma cell acquires the ability to divide independently of external stimuli. As many of the target genes are conserved and play roles in cancers of non-viral origin, this study may provide a paradigm for the gene interactions that underlie cancer biology. It also elucidates the risks entailed in the recent use of retrovirus-based vectors for human gene therapy.