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Trexler M, Bányai L, Kerekes K, Patthy L. Arginines of the CGN codon family are Achilles' heels of cancer genes. Sci Rep 2024; 14:11715. [PMID: 38778164 PMCID: PMC11111792 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-62553-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2023] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Recent studies have revealed that arginine is the most favorable target of amino acid alteration in most cancer types and it has been suggested that the high preference for arginine mutations reflects the critical roles of this amino acid in the function of proteins. High rates of mutations of arginine residues in cancer, however, might also be due to increased mutability of arginine codons of the CGN family as the CpG dinucleotides of these codons may be methylated. In the present work we have analyzed spectra of single base substitutions of cancer genes (oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes) and passenger genes in cancer tissues to assess the contributions of CpG hypermutability and selection to arginine mutations. Our studies have shown that arginines encoded by the CGN codon family display higher rates of mutation in both cancer genes and passenger genes than arginine codons AGA and AGG that are devoid of CpG dinucleotide, suggesting that the predominance of arginine mutations in cancer is primarily due to CpG hypermutability, rather than selection for arginine replacement. Nevertheless, our results also suggest that CGN codons for arginines may serve as Achilles' heels of cancer genes. CpG hypermutability of key arginines of proto-oncogenes, leading to high rates of recurrence of driver mutations, contributes significantly to carcinogenesis. Similarly, our results indicate that hypermutability of the CpG dinucleotide of CGA codons (converting them to TGA stop codons) contributes significantly to recurrent truncation and inactivation of tumor suppressor genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mária Trexler
- Institute of Enzymology, HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, 1117, Hungary
| | - László Bányai
- Institute of Enzymology, HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, 1117, Hungary
| | - Krisztina Kerekes
- Institute of Enzymology, HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, 1117, Hungary
| | - László Patthy
- Institute of Enzymology, HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, 1117, Hungary.
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2
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Ding K, Xu Q, Zhao L, Li Y, Li Z, Shi W, Zeng Q, Wang X, Zhang X. Chromosome-level genome provides insights into environmental adaptability and innate immunity in the common dolphin (delphinus delphis). BMC Genomics 2024; 25:373. [PMID: 38627659 PMCID: PMC11022445 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-024-10268-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2023] [Accepted: 03/28/2024] [Indexed: 04/19/2024] Open
Abstract
The common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) is widely distributed worldwide and well adapted to various habitats. Animal genomes store clues about their pasts, and can reveal the genes underlying their evolutionary success. Here, we report the first high-quality chromosome-level genome of D. delphis. The assembled genome size was 2.56 Gb with a contig N50 of 63.85 Mb. Phylogenetically, D. delphis was close to Tursiops truncatus and T. aduncus. The genome of D. delphis exhibited 428 expanded and 1,885 contracted gene families, and 120 genes were identified as positively selected. The expansion of the HSP70 gene family suggested that D. delphis has a powerful system for buffering stress, which might be associated with its broad adaptability, longevity, and detoxification capacity. The expanded IFN-α and IFN-ω gene families, as well as the positively selected genes encoding tripartite motif-containing protein 25, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase NIMA-interacting 1, and p38 MAP kinase, were all involved in pathways for antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antineoplastic mechanisms. The genome data also revealed dramatic fluctuations in the effective population size during the Pleistocene. Overall, the high-quality genome assembly and annotation represent significant molecular resources for ecological and evolutionary studies of Delphinus and help support their sustainable treatment and conservation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kui Ding
- Key Laboratory of Marine Eco-Environmental Science and Technology, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao Marine Science and Technology Center, Qingdao, China
| | - Qinzeng Xu
- Key Laboratory of Marine Eco-Environmental Science and Technology, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao Marine Science and Technology Center, Qingdao, China
| | - Liyuan Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Marine Ecological Conservation and Restoration, Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen, China
| | - Yixuan Li
- Key Laboratory of Marine Eco-Environmental Science and Technology, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao Marine Science and Technology Center, Qingdao, China
| | - Zhong Li
- Key Laboratory of Marine Eco-Environmental Science and Technology, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao Marine Science and Technology Center, Qingdao, China
| | - Wenge Shi
- Key Laboratory of Marine Eco-Environmental Science and Technology, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao Marine Science and Technology Center, Qingdao, China
| | - Qianhui Zeng
- Key Laboratory of Marine Ecological Conservation and Restoration, Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen, China
| | - Xianyan Wang
- Key Laboratory of Marine Ecological Conservation and Restoration, Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen, China.
| | - Xuelei Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Marine Eco-Environmental Science and Technology, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, China.
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao Marine Science and Technology Center, Qingdao, China.
- National Engineering Laboratory for Integrated Aero-Space-Ground-Ocean Big Data Application Technology, Xi'an, China.
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3
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Zhao B, Li J, Sinha S, Qin Z, Kou SH, Xiao F, Lei H, Chen T, Cao W, Ding X, Wang SM. Pathogenic variants in human DNA damage repair genes mostly arose in recent human history. BMC Cancer 2024; 24:415. [PMID: 38575974 PMCID: PMC10993466 DOI: 10.1186/s12885-024-12160-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2023] [Accepted: 03/21/2024] [Indexed: 04/06/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Genome stability is maintained by the DNA damage repair (DDR) system composed of multiple DNA repair pathways of hundreds of genes. Germline pathogenic variation (PV) in DDR genes damages function of the affected DDR genes, leading to genome instability and high risk of diseases, in particular, cancer. Knowing evolutionary origin of the PVs in human DDR genes is essential to understand the etiology of human diseases. However, answer to the issue remains largely elusive. In this study, we analyzed evolutionary origin for the PVs in human DDR genes. METHODS We identified 169 DDR genes by referring to various databases and identified PVs in the DDR genes of modern humans from ClinVar database. We performed a phylogenetic analysis to analyze the conservation of human DDR PVs in 100 vertebrates through cross-species genomic data comparison using the phyloFit program of the PHAST package and visualized the results using the GraphPad Prism software and the ggplot module. We identified DDR PVs from over 5000 ancient humans developed a database to host the DDR PVs ( https://genemutation.fhs.um.edu.mo/dbDDR-AncientHumans ). Using the PV data, we performed a molecular archeological analysis to compare the DDR PVs between modern humans and ancient humans. We analyzed evolution selection of DDR genes across 20 vertebrates using the CodeML in PAML for phylogenetic analysis. RESULTS Our phylogenic analysis ruled out cross-species conservation as the origin of human DDR PVs. Our archeological approach identified rich DDR PVs shared between modern and ancient humans, which were mostly dated within the last 5000 years. We also observed similar pattern of quantitative PV distribution between modern and ancient humans. We further detected a set of ATM, BRCA2 and CHEK2 PVs shared between human and Neanderthals. CONCLUSIONS Our study reveals that human DDR PVs mostly arose in recent human history. We propose that human high cancer risk caused by DDR PVs can be a by-product of human evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bojin Zhao
- Cancer Centre and Institute of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, 999078, Macau SAR, China
| | - Jiaheng Li
- Cancer Centre and Institute of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, 999078, Macau SAR, China
| | - Siddharth Sinha
- Cancer Centre and Institute of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, 999078, Macau SAR, China
| | - Zixin Qin
- Cancer Centre and Institute of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, 999078, Macau SAR, China
| | - Si Hoi Kou
- Cancer Centre and Institute of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, 999078, Macau SAR, China
| | - Fengxia Xiao
- Cancer Centre and Institute of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, 999078, Macau SAR, China
| | - Huijun Lei
- Cancer Centre and Institute of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, 999078, Macau SAR, China
- Department of Cancer Prevention, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, 310022, China
| | - Tianhui Chen
- Department of Cancer Prevention, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, 310022, China
- Hangzhou Institute of Medicine, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, 310018, China
| | - Wenming Cao
- Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, 310022, China
- Hangzhou Institute of Medicine, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, 310018, China
| | - Xiaofan Ding
- Cancer Centre and Institute of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, 999078, Macau SAR, China
| | - San Ming Wang
- Cancer Centre and Institute of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, 999078, Macau SAR, China.
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4
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Bukhman YV, Morin PA, Meyer S, Chu LF, Jacobsen JK, Antosiewicz-Bourget J, Mamott D, Gonzales M, Argus C, Bolin J, Berres ME, Fedrigo O, Steill J, Swanson SA, Jiang P, Rhie A, Formenti G, Phillippy AM, Harris RS, Wood JMD, Howe K, Kirilenko BM, Munegowda C, Hiller M, Jain A, Kihara D, Johnston JS, Ionkov A, Raja K, Toh H, Lang A, Wolf M, Jarvis ED, Thomson JA, Chaisson MJP, Stewart R. A High-Quality Blue Whale Genome, Segmental Duplications, and Historical Demography. Mol Biol Evol 2024; 41:msae036. [PMID: 38376487 PMCID: PMC10919930 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msae036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2023] [Revised: 01/11/2024] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 02/21/2024] Open
Abstract
The blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus, is the largest animal known to have ever existed, making it an important case study in longevity and resistance to cancer. To further this and other blue whale-related research, we report a reference-quality, long-read-based genome assembly of this fascinating species. We assembled the genome from PacBio long reads and utilized Illumina/10×, optical maps, and Hi-C data for scaffolding, polishing, and manual curation. We also provided long read RNA-seq data to facilitate the annotation of the assembly by NCBI and Ensembl. Additionally, we annotated both haplotypes using TOGA and measured the genome size by flow cytometry. We then compared the blue whale genome with other cetaceans and artiodactyls, including vaquita (Phocoena sinus), the world's smallest cetacean, to investigate blue whale's unique biological traits. We found a dramatic amplification of several genes in the blue whale genome resulting from a recent burst in segmental duplications, though the possible connection between this amplification and giant body size requires further study. We also discovered sites in the insulin-like growth factor-1 gene correlated with body size in cetaceans. Finally, using our assembly to examine the heterozygosity and historical demography of Pacific and Atlantic blue whale populations, we found that the genomes of both populations are highly heterozygous and that their genetic isolation dates to the last interglacial period. Taken together, these results indicate how a high-quality, annotated blue whale genome will serve as an important resource for biology, evolution, and conservation research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yury V Bukhman
- Regenerative Biology, Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI 53715, USA
| | - Phillip A Morin
- Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Susanne Meyer
- Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | - Li-Fang Chu
- Regenerative Biology, Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI 53715, USA
- Department of Comparative Biology and Experimental Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | | | | | - Daniel Mamott
- Regenerative Biology, Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI 53715, USA
| | - Maylie Gonzales
- Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | - Cara Argus
- Regenerative Biology, Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI 53715, USA
| | - Jennifer Bolin
- Regenerative Biology, Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI 53715, USA
| | - Mark E Berres
- University of Wisconsin Biotechnology Center, Bioinformatics Resource Center, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Olivier Fedrigo
- Vertebrate Genome Lab, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - John Steill
- Regenerative Biology, Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI 53715, USA
| | - Scott A Swanson
- Regenerative Biology, Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI 53715, USA
| | - Peng Jiang
- Center for Gene Regulation in Health and Disease (GRHD), Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, USA
- Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, USA
- Center for RNA Science and Therapeutics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
| | - Arang Rhie
- Genome Informatics Section, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Giulio Formenti
- Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language, The Rockefeller University/HHMI, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Adam M Phillippy
- Genome Informatics Section, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Robert S Harris
- Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | | | - Kerstin Howe
- Tree of Life, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Bogdan M Kirilenko
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany
- Senckenberg Research Institute, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany
- Institute of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Faculty of Biosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Chetan Munegowda
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany
- Senckenberg Research Institute, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany
- Institute of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Faculty of Biosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Michael Hiller
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany
- Senckenberg Research Institute, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany
- Institute of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Faculty of Biosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Aashish Jain
- Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Daisuke Kihara
- Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - J Spencer Johnston
- Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| | - Alexander Ionkov
- Regenerative Biology, Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI 53715, USA
| | - Kalpana Raja
- Regenerative Biology, Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI 53715, USA
| | - Huishi Toh
- Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | - Aimee Lang
- Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Magnus Wolf
- Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity (IEB), University of Muenster, 48149, Muenster, Germany
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Erich D Jarvis
- Vertebrate Genome Lab, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA
- Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language, The Rockefeller University/HHMI, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - James A Thomson
- Regenerative Biology, Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI 53715, USA
- Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
- Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53726, USA
| | - Mark J P Chaisson
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Ron Stewart
- Regenerative Biology, Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI 53715, USA
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5
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Davey Smith G, Hofman A, Brennan P. Chance, ignorance, and the paradoxes of cancer: Richard Peto on developing preventative strategies under uncertainty. Eur J Epidemiol 2023; 38:1227-1237. [PMID: 38147198 DOI: 10.1007/s10654-023-01090-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/08/2023] [Indexed: 12/27/2023]
Abstract
During the early 1980s both cancer biology and epidemiological methods were being transformed. In 1984 the leading cancer epidemiologist Richard Peto - who, in 1981, had published the landmark Causes of Cancer with Richard Doll - wrote a short chapter on "The need for ignorance in cancer research", in which the worlds of epidemiology and speculative Darwinian biology met. His reflections on how evolutionary theory related to cancer have become known as "Peto's paradox", whilst his articulation of "black box epidemiology" provided the logic of subsequent practice in the field. We reprint this sparkling and prescient example of biologically-informed epidemiological theorising at its best in this issue of the European Journal of Epidemiology, together with four commentaries that focus on different aspects of its rich content. Here were provide some contextual background to the 1984 chapter, and our own speculations regarding various paradoxes in cancer epidemiology. We suggest that one reason for the relative lack of progress in indentifying novel modifiable causes of cancer over the last 40 years may reflect such exposures being ubiquitous within environments, and discuss the lessons for epidemiology that would follow from this.
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Affiliation(s)
- George Davey Smith
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 2BN, UK.
| | - Albert Hofman
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA
| | - Paul Brennan
- Genomic Epidemiology Branch, IARC - International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
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6
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Hernandez KM, O'Neill KB, Bors EK, Steel D, Zoller JA, Constantine R, Horvath S, Baker CS. Using epigenetic clocks to investigate changes in the age structure of critically endangered Māui dolphins. Ecol Evol 2023; 13:e10562. [PMID: 37780090 PMCID: PMC10534197 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10562] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2023] [Accepted: 09/11/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The age of an individual is an essential demographic parameter but is difficult to estimate without long-term monitoring or invasive sampling. Epigenetic approaches are increasingly used to age organisms, including nonmodel organisms such as cetaceans. Māui dolphins (Cephalorhynchus hectori maui) are a critically endangered subspecies endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand, and the age structure of this population is important for informing conservation. Here we present an epigenetic clock for aging Māui and Hector's dolphins (C. h. hectori) developed from methylation data using DNA from tooth aged individuals (n = 48). Based on this training data set, the optimal model required only eight methylation sites, provided an age correlation of .95, and had a median absolute age error of 1.54 years. A leave-one-out cross-validation analysis with the same parameters resulted in an age correlation of .87 and median absolute age error of 2.09 years. To improve age estimation, we included previously published beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) data to develop a joint beluga/dolphin clock, resulting in a clock with comparable performance and improved estimation of older individuals. Application of the models to DNA from skin biopsy samples of living Māui dolphins revealed a shift from a median age of 8-9 years to a younger population aged 7-8 years 10 years later. These models could be applied to other dolphin species and demonstrate the ability to construct a clock even when the number of known age samples is limited, removing this impediment to estimating demographic parameters vital to the conservation of critically endangered species.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Eleanor K. Bors
- Marine Mammal InstituteOregon State UniversityOregonNewportUSA
| | - Debbie Steel
- Marine Mammal InstituteOregon State UniversityOregonNewportUSA
| | - Joseph A. Zoller
- Fielding School of Public Health, Department of BiostatisticsUniversity of CaliforniaCaliforniaLos AngelesUSA
| | - Rochelle Constantine
- School of Biological Sciences & Institute of Marine ScienceUniversity of Auckland – Waipapa Taumata RauAucklandNew Zealand
| | - Steve Horvath
- Fielding School of Public Health, Department of BiostatisticsUniversity of CaliforniaCaliforniaLos AngelesUSA
- David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Human GeneticsUniversity of CaliforniaCaliforniaLos AngelesUSA
- Altos LabsCaliforniaSan DiegoUSA
| | - C. Scott Baker
- Marine Mammal InstituteOregon State UniversityOregonNewportUSA
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7
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Suárez-Menéndez M, Bérubé M, Furni F, Rivera-León VE, Heide-Jørgensen MP, Larsen F, Sears R, Ramp C, Eriksson BK, Etienne RS, Robbins J, Palsbøll PJ. Wild pedigrees inform mutation rates and historic abundance in baleen whales. Science 2023; 381:990-995. [PMID: 37651509 DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2160] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2022] [Accepted: 07/25/2023] [Indexed: 09/02/2023]
Abstract
Phylogeny-based estimates suggesting a low germline mutation rate (μ) in baleen whales have influenced research ranging from assessments of whaling impacts to evolutionary cancer biology. We estimated μ directly from pedigrees in four baleen whale species for both the mitochondrial control region and nuclear genome. The results suggest values higher than those obtained through phylogeny-based estimates and similar to pedigree-based values for primates and toothed whales. Applying our estimate of μ reduces previous genetic-based estimates of preexploitation whale abundance by 86% and suggests that μ cannot explain low cancer rates in gigantic mammals. Our study shows that it is feasible to estimate μ directly from pedigrees in natural populations, with wide-ranging implications for ecological and evolutionary research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcos Suárez-Menéndez
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Martine Bérubé
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
- Center for Coastal Studies, Provincetown, MA, USA
| | - Fabrício Furni
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Vania E Rivera-León
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | | | - Finn Larsen
- National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Richard Sears
- Mingan Island Cetacean Study Inc., St. Lambert, Quebec, Canada
| | - Christian Ramp
- Mingan Island Cetacean Study Inc., St. Lambert, Quebec, Canada
- Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, UK
| | - Britas Klemens Eriksson
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Rampal S Etienne
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | | | - Per J Palsbøll
- Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
- Center for Coastal Studies, Provincetown, MA, USA
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8
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Sepp T, Giraudeau M. Wild animals as an underused treasure trove for studying the genetics of cancer. Bioessays 2023; 45:e2200188. [PMID: 36404107 DOI: 10.1002/bies.202200188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2022] [Revised: 11/08/2022] [Accepted: 11/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Recent years have seen an emergence of the field of comparative cancer genomics. However, the advancements in this field are held back by the hesitation to use knowledge obtained from human studies to study cancer in other animals, and vice versa. Since cancer is an ancient disease that arose with multicellularity, oncogenes and tumour-suppressor genes are amongst the oldest gene classes, shared by most animal species. Acknowledging that other animals are, in terms of cancer genetics, ecology, and evolution, rather similar to humans, creates huge potential for advancing the fields of human and animal oncology, but also biodiversity conservation. Also see the video abstract here: https://youtu.be/UFqyMx5HETY.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tuul Sepp
- Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Mathieu Giraudeau
- Littoral, Environnement et Sociétés (LIENSs), UMR 7266 CNRS-La Rochelle Université, La Rochelle, France
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9
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Schraverus H, Larondelle Y, Page MM. Beyond the Lab: What We Can Learn about Cancer from Wild and Domestic Animals. Cancers (Basel) 2022; 14:cancers14246177. [PMID: 36551658 PMCID: PMC9776354 DOI: 10.3390/cancers14246177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2022] [Revised: 12/02/2022] [Accepted: 12/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Cancer research has benefited immensely from the use of animal models. Several genetic tools accessible in rodent models have provided valuable insight into cellular and molecular mechanisms linked to cancer development or metastasis and various lines are available. However, at the same time, it is important to accompany these findings with those from alternative or non-model animals to offer new perspectives into the understanding of tumor development, prevention, and treatment. In this review, we first discuss animals characterized by little or no tumor development. Cancer incidence in small animals, such as the naked mole rat, blind mole rat and bats have been reported as almost negligible and tumor development may be inhibited by increased defense and repair mechanisms, altered cell cycle signaling and reduced rates of cell migration to avoid tumor microenvironments. On the other end of the size spectrum, large animals such as elephants and whales also appear to have low overall cancer rates, possibly due to gene replicates that are involved in apoptosis and therefore can inhibit uncontrolled cell cycle progression. While it is important to determine the mechanisms that lead to cancer protection in these animals, we can also take advantage of other animals that are highly susceptible to cancer, especially those which develop tumors similar to humans, such as carnivores or poultry. The use of such animals does not require the transplantation of malignant cancer cells or use of oncogenic substances as they spontaneously develop tumors of similar presentation and pathophysiology to those found in humans. For example, some tumor suppressor genes are highly conserved between humans and domestic species, and various tumors develop in similar ways or because of a common environment. These animals are therefore of great interest for broadening perspectives and techniques and for gathering information on the tumor mechanisms of certain types of cancer. Here we present a detailed review of alternative and/or non-model vertebrates, that can be used at different levels of cancer research to open new perspectives and fields of action.
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10
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Surmik D, Słowiak-Morkovina J, Szczygielski T, Kamaszewski M, Kalita S, Teschner EM, Dróżdż D, Duda P, Rothschild BM, Konietzko-Meier D. An insight into cancer palaeobiology: does the Mesozoic neoplasm support tissue organization field theory of tumorigenesis? BMC Ecol Evol 2022; 22:143. [PMID: 36513967 PMCID: PMC9746082 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-022-02098-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/08/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Neoplasms are common across the animal kingdom and seem to be a feature plesiomorphic for metazoans, related with an increase in somatic complexity. The fossil record of cancer complements our knowledge of the origin of neoplasms and vulnerability of various vertebrate taxa. Here, we document the first undoubted record of primary malignant bone tumour in a Mesozoic non-amniote. The diagnosed osteosarcoma developed in the vertebral intercentrum of a temnospondyl amphibian, Metoposaurus krasiejowensis from the Krasiejów locality, southern Poland. RESULTS A wide array of data collected from gross anatomy, histology, and microstructure of the affected intercentrum reveals the tumour growth dynamics and pathophysiological aspects of the neoplasm formation on the histological level. The pathological process almost exclusively pertains to the periosteal part of the bone composed from a highly vascularised tissue with lamellar matrix. The unorganised arrangement of osteocyte lacunae observed in the tissue is characteristic for bone tissue types connected with static osteogenesis, and not for lamellar bone. The neoplastic bone mimics on the structural level the fast growing fibrolamellar bone, but on the histological level develops through a novel ossification type. The physiological process of bone remodelling inside the endochondral domain continued uninterrupted across the pathology of the periosteal part. CONCLUSIONS Based on the results, we discuss our case study's consistence with the Tissue Organization Field Theory of tumorigenesis, which locates the causes of neoplastic transformations in disorders of tissue architecture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dawid Surmik
- grid.11866.380000 0001 2259 4135Institute of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland
| | - Justyna Słowiak-Morkovina
- grid.413454.30000 0001 1958 0162Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Tomasz Szczygielski
- grid.413454.30000 0001 1958 0162Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Maciej Kamaszewski
- grid.13276.310000 0001 1955 7966Institute of Animal Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Ciszewskiego 8, 02-786 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Sudipta Kalita
- grid.10388.320000 0001 2240 3300Institute of Geosciences, Section Paleontology, University of Bonn, Nussallee 8, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - Elżbieta M. Teschner
- grid.10388.320000 0001 2240 3300Institute of Geosciences, Section Paleontology, University of Bonn, Nussallee 8, 53115 Bonn, Germany ,grid.107891.60000 0001 1010 7301Institute of Biology, University of Opole, Oleska 22, 45-052 Opole, Poland
| | - Dawid Dróżdż
- grid.413454.30000 0001 1958 0162Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Piotr Duda
- grid.11866.380000 0001 2259 4135Faculty of Exact and Technical Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska 39, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland
| | - Bruce M. Rothschild
- grid.420557.10000 0001 2110 2178Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 4400 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15215 USA
| | - Dorota Konietzko-Meier
- grid.10388.320000 0001 2240 3300Institute of Geosciences, Section Paleontology, University of Bonn, Nussallee 8, 53115 Bonn, Germany
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11
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Baines C, Meitern R, Kreitsberg R, Sepp T. Comparative study of the evolution of cancer gene duplications across fish. Evol Appl 2022; 15:1834-1845. [PMID: 36426117 PMCID: PMC9679246 DOI: 10.1111/eva.13481] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2022] [Revised: 09/05/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Comparative studies of cancer‐related genes not only provide novel information about their evolution and function but also an understanding of cancer as a driving force in biological systems and species’ life histories. So far, these studies have focused on mammals. Here, we provide the first comparative study of cancer‐related gene copy number variation in fish. Fishes are a paraphyletic group whose last common ancestor is also an ancestor of the tetrapods, and accordingly, their tumour suppression mechanisms should include most of the mammalian mechanisms and also reveal novel (but potentially phylogenetically older) previously undetected mechanisms. We have matched the sequenced genomes of 65 fish species from the Ensemble database with the cancer gene information from the COSMIC database. By calculating the number of gene copies across species using the Ensembl CAFE data (providing species trees for gene copy number counts), we used a less resource‐demanding method for homolog identification. Our analysis demonstrates a masked relationship between cancer‐related gene copy number variation (CNV) and maximum lifespan in fish species, suggesting that a higher number of copies of tumour suppressor genes lengthens and the number of copies of oncogenes shortens lifespan. Based on the positive correlation between the number of copies of tumour suppressors and oncogenes, we show which species have more tumour suppressors in relation to oncogenes. It could be suggested that these species have stronger genetic defences against oncogenic processes. Fish studies could be a largely unexplored treasure trove for understanding the evolution and ecology of cancer, providing novel insights into the study of cancer and tumour suppression, in addition to fish evolution, life‐history trade‐offs, and ecology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ciara Baines
- Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences University of Tartu Tartu Estonia
- Estonian Marine Institute University of Tartu Tallinn Estonia
| | - Richard Meitern
- Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences University of Tartu Tartu Estonia
| | - Randel Kreitsberg
- Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences University of Tartu Tartu Estonia
| | - Tuul Sepp
- Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences University of Tartu Tartu Estonia
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12
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Voskarides K, Koutsofti C, Pozova M. TP53 Mutant Versus Wild-Type Zebrafish Larvae Under Starvation Stress: Larvae Can Live Up to 17 Days Post-Fertilization Without Food. Zebrafish 2022; 19:49-55. [PMID: 35417275 DOI: 10.1089/zeb.2022.0003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
In this study, an experimental protocol has been developed for comparing survival rates of mutant and wild-type zebrafish larvae under extreme starvation. Zebrafish larvae were placed in 96-well plates at fourth day postfertilization (dpf) and larvae were not fed at all from hatching to cease. Zdf1 zebrafish line was used, a strain carrying the (cancer) pathogenic TP53-M214K amino acid substitution. TP53-M214 corresponds to the human TP53-M246 and both residues are located on the DNA-binding domain of the p53 protein. Survival statistical analysis did not show any significant difference in the overall survival rates between homozygous mutant and wild-type larvae. When considering 15 dpf as the endpoint of the experiment (66% of larvae died), a borderline statistical significance was observed for the dominant model of inheritance (p = 0.015; relative hazard = 0.8320). Despite the fact yolk sac of larvae is depleted at 7-8 dpf, 34% of larvae survive until 15 dpf and 1.5% until 17 dpf. Concluding, three main results derive from this study: (1) pathogenic homozygous mutations in TP53 probably do not alter survival rates of zebrafish larvae under starvation; (2) zebrafish larvae can live up to 17 dpf without food, surviving only with their initial nutritional supplies; and (3) an easy and affordable protocol has been developed for estimating survival rates of zebrafish larvae under stressful conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Constantina Koutsofti
- Center of Excellence in Biobanking and Biomedical Research, Molecular Medicine Research Center, University of Cyprus Medical School, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Maria Pozova
- Medical School, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
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13
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Nunney L. Cancer suppression and the evolution of multiple retrogene copies of TP53 in elephants: a re‐evaluation. Evol Appl 2022; 15:891-901. [PMID: 35603034 PMCID: PMC9108310 DOI: 10.1111/eva.13383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2021] [Revised: 03/27/2022] [Accepted: 04/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Evolving to become bigger and/or longer lived should increase cancer susceptibility, but this predicted increase is not observed, a contradiction named Peto's paradox. A solution is that cancer suppression evolves to minimize cancer susceptibility, and the discovery of 19 retrogene (RTG) copies of the tumor suppressor gene TP53 in the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) is increasingly cited as a classic example of such adaptive suppression. However, classic examples need rigorous evaluation and an alternative hypothesis is that the RTGs spread by genetic drift. This study shows that before its duplication, the ancestral elephant RTG was already truncated from 390 amino acids to 157 by a frameshift mutation, and that 14 of the 19 copies are now truncated to ≤88 amino acids. There was no compelling evidence of either positive or negative selection acting on these 88 codons, and the pattern of RTG accumulation fits a neutral model with a duplication rate of ~10−6 per generation. It is concluded that there is no evidence supporting the hypothesis that the 19 elephant RTGs spread to fixation by selection; instead, the evidence indicates that these RTGs accumulated primarily by segmental duplication and drift. It is shown that the evolutionary multistage model of carcinogenesis (EMMC) predicts the recruitment of 1–2 independently acting tumor suppressor genes to suppress the increased cancer risk in elephants, so it is possible that one or a few RTGs may have been favored by selection resulting in the known enhanced sensitivity of elephant cells to DNA damage. However, the analysis does not provide any support for either a direct (via conserved TP53 activity) or indirect (via supporting canonical TP53 function) role of the RTGs sequences, so that the presence of multiple copies of TP53 retrogenes in elephants needs to be further justified before being used as a classic example of tumor suppression in large‐bodied animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonard Nunney
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology University of California Riverside 900 University Avenue Riverside CA 92521 USA
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14
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Immunity and lifespan: answering long-standing questions with comparative genomics. Trends Genet 2022; 38:650-661. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2022.02.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2021] [Revised: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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15
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Distinguishing Evolutionary Conservation from Derivedness. Life (Basel) 2022; 12:life12030440. [PMID: 35330191 PMCID: PMC8954198 DOI: 10.3390/life12030440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2022] [Revised: 03/14/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
While the concept of “evolutionary conservation” has enabled biologists to explain many ancestral features and traits, it has also frequently been misused to evaluate the degree of changes from a common ancestor, or “derivedness”. We propose that the distinction of these two concepts allows us to properly understand phenotypic and organismal evolution. From a methodological aspect, “conservation” mainly considers genes or traits which species have in common, while “derivedness” additionally covers those that are not commonly shared, such as novel or lost traits and genes to evaluate changes from the time of divergence from a common ancestor. Due to these differences, while conservation-oriented methods are effective in identifying ancestral features, they may be prone to underestimating the overall changes accumulated during the evolution of certain lineages. Herein, we describe our recently developed method, “transcriptomic derivedness index”, for estimating the phenotypic derivedness of embryos with a molecular approach using the whole-embryonic transcriptome as a phenotype. Although echinoderms are often considered as highly derived species, our analyses with this method showed that their embryos, at least at the transcriptomic level, may not be much more derived than those of chordates. We anticipate that the future development of derivedness-oriented methods could provide quantitative indicators for finding highly/lowly evolvable traits.
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16
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Dimos B, Emery M, Beavers K, MacKnight N, Brandt M, Demuth J, Mydlarz L. Adaptive Variation in Homolog Number Within Transcript Families Promotes Expression Divergence in Reef-Building Coral. Mol Ecol 2022; 31:2594-2610. [PMID: 35229964 DOI: 10.1111/mec.16414] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2021] [Revised: 02/10/2022] [Accepted: 02/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Gene expression, especially in multi-species experiments, is used to gain insight into the genetic basis of how organisms adapt and respond to changing environments. However, evolutionary processes which can influence gene expression patterns between species such as the presence of paralogs which arise from gene duplication events are rarely accounted for. Paralogous transcripts can alter the transcriptional output of a gene and thus exclusion of these transcripts can obscure important biological differences between species. To address this issue, we investigated how differences in transcript family size is associated with divergent gene expression patterns in five species of Caribbean reef-building corals. We demonstrate that transcript families that are rapidly evolving in terms of size have increased levels of expression divergence. Additionally, these rapidly evolving transcript families are enriched for multiple biological processes, with genes involved in the coral innate immune system demonstrating pronounced variation in homolog number between species. Overall, this investigation demonstrates the importance of incorporating paralogous transcripts when comparing gene expression across species by influencing both transcriptional output and the number of transcripts within biological processes. As this investigation was based on transcriptome assemblies, additional insights into the relationship between gene duplications and expression patterns will likely emergence once more genome assemblies are available for study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bradford Dimos
- Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA
| | - Madison Emery
- Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA
| | - Kelsey Beavers
- Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA
| | - Nicholas MacKnight
- Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA
| | - Marilyn Brandt
- Center for Marine and Environmental Studies, University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, 00802, USA
| | - Jeffery Demuth
- Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA
| | - Laura Mydlarz
- Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA
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17
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Sarver AL, Makielski KM, DePauw TA, Schulte AJ, Modiano JF. Increased risk of cancer in dogs and humans: a consequence of recent extension of lifespan beyond evolutionarily-determined limitations? AGING AND CANCER 2022; 3:3-19. [PMID: 35993010 PMCID: PMC9387675 DOI: 10.1002/aac2.12046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Cancer is among the most common causes of death for dogs (and cats) and humans in the developed world, even though it is uncommon in wildlife and other domestic animals. We provide a rationale for this observation based on recent advances in our understanding of the evolutionary basis of cancer. Over the course of evolutionary time, species have acquired and fine-tuned adaptive cancer protective mechanisms that are intrinsically related to their energy demands, reproductive strategies, and expected lifespan. These cancer protective mechanisms are general across species and/or specific to each species and their niche, and they do not seem to be limited in diversity. The evolutionarily acquired cancer-free longevity that defines a species' life history can explain why the relative cancer risk, rate, and incidence are largely similar across most species in the animal kingdom despite differences in body size and life expectancy. The molecular, cellular, and metabolic events that promote malignant transformation and cancerous growth can overcome these adaptive, species-specific protective mechanisms in a small proportion of individuals, while independently, some individuals in the population might achieve exceptional longevity. In dogs and humans, recent dramatic alterations in healthcare and social structures have allowed increasing numbers of individuals in both species to far exceed their species-adapted longevities (by 2-4 times) without allowing the time necessary for compensatory natural selection. In other words, the cancer protective mechanisms that restrain risk at comparable levels to other species for their adapted lifespan are incapable of providing cancer protection over this recent, drastic and widespread increase in longevity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron L. Sarver
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN,Institute for Health Informatics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN,Animal Cancer Care and Research Program, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN
| | - Kelly M. Makielski
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN,Animal Cancer Care and Research Program, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN,Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN
| | - Taylor A DePauw
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN,Animal Cancer Care and Research Program, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN,Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN
| | - Ashley J. Schulte
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN,Animal Cancer Care and Research Program, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN,Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN
| | - Jaime F. Modiano
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN,Animal Cancer Care and Research Program, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN,Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN,Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN,Center for Immunology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN,Stem Cell Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN,Institute for Engineering in Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
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18
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Conservation of A-to-I RNA editing in bowhead whale and pig. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0260081. [PMID: 34882682 PMCID: PMC8659423 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2021] [Accepted: 11/02/2021] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
RNA editing is a post-transcriptional process in which nucleotide changes are introduced into an RNA sequence, many of which can contribute to proteomic sequence variation. The most common type of RNA editing, contributing to nearly 99% of all editing events in RNA, is A-to-I (adenosine-to-inosine) editing mediated by double-stranded RNA-specific adenosine deaminase (ADAR) enzymes. A-to-I editing at 'recoding' sites results in non-synonymous substitutions in protein-coding sequences. Here, we present studies of the conservation of A-to-I editing in selected mRNAs between pigs, bowhead whales, humans and two shark species. All examined mRNAs-NEIL1, COG3, GRIA2, FLNA, FLNB, IGFBP7, AZIN1, BLCAP, GLI1, SON, HTR2C and ADAR2 -showed conservation of A-to-I editing of recoding sites. In addition, novel editing sites were identified in NEIL1 and GLI1 in bowhead whales. The A-to-I editing site of human NEIL1 in position 242 was conserved in the bowhead and porcine homologues. A novel editing site was discovered in Tyr244. Differential editing was detected at the two adenosines in the NEIL1 242 codon in both pig and bowhead NEIL1 mRNAs in various tissues and organs. No conservation of editing of KCNB1 and EEF1A mRNAs was seen in bowhead whales. In silico analyses revealed conservation of five adenosines in ADAR2, some of which are subject to A-to-I editing in bowheads and pigs, and conservation of a regulatory sequence in GRIA2 mRNA that is responsible for recognition of the ADAR editing enzyme.
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19
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Omotoso O, Gladyshev VN, Zhou X. Lifespan Extension in Long-Lived Vertebrates Rooted in Ecological Adaptation. Front Cell Dev Biol 2021; 9:704966. [PMID: 34733838 PMCID: PMC8558438 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2021.704966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2021] [Accepted: 09/02/2021] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Contemporary studies on aging and longevity have largely overlooked the role that adaptation plays in lifespan variation across species. Emerging evidence indicates that the genetic signals of extended lifespan may be maintained by natural selection, suggesting that longevity could be a product of organismal adaptation. The mechanisms of adaptation in long-lived animals are believed to account for the modification of physiological function. Here, we first review recent progress in comparative biology of long-lived animals, together with the emergence of adaptive genetic factors that control longevity and disease resistance. We then propose that hitchhiking of adaptive genetic changes is the basis for lifespan changes and suggest ways to test this evolutionary model. As individual adaptive or adaptation-linked mutations/substitutions generate specific forms of longevity effects, the cumulative beneficial effect is largely nonrandom and is indirectly favored by natural selection. We consider this concept in light of other proposed theories of aging and integrate these disparate ideas into an adaptive evolutionary model, highlighting strategies in decoding genetic factors of lifespan control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olatunde Omotoso
- CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Beijing, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Vadim N Gladyshev
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Xuming Zhou
- CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Beijing, China
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20
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Águeda-Pinto A, Alves LQ, Neves F, McFadden G, Jacobs BL, Castro LFC, Rahman MM, Esteves PJ. Convergent Loss of the Necroptosis Pathway in Disparate Mammalian Lineages Shapes Viruses Countermeasures. Front Immunol 2021; 12:747737. [PMID: 34539677 PMCID: PMC8445033 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.747737] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2021] [Accepted: 08/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Programmed cell death is a vital process in the life cycle of organisms. Necroptosis, an evolutionary form of programmed necrosis, contributes to the innate immune response by killing pathogen-infected cells. This virus-host interaction pathway is organized around two components: the receptor-interacting protein kinase 3 (RIPK3), which recruits and phosphorylates the mixed lineage kinase-like protein (MLKL), inducing cellular plasma membrane rupture and cell death. Critically, the presence of necroptotic inhibitors in viral genomes validates necroptosis as an important host defense mechanism. Here, we show, counterintuitively, that in different mammalian lineages, central components of necroptosis, such as RIPK3 and MLKL, are deleted or display inactivating mutations. Frameshifts or premature stop codons are observed in all the studied species of cetaceans and leporids. In carnivores’ genomes, the MLKL gene is deleted, while in a small number of species from afrotheria and rodentia premature stop codons are observed in RIPK3 and/or MLKL. Interestingly, we also found a strong correlation between the disruption of necroptosis in leporids and cetaceans and the absence of the N-terminal domain of E3-like homologs (responsible for necroptosis inhibition) in their naturally infecting poxviruses. Overall, our study provides the first comprehensive picture of the molecular evolution of necroptosis in mammals. The loss of necroptosis multiple times during mammalian evolution highlights the importance of gene/pathway loss for species adaptation and suggests that necroptosis is not required for normal mammalian development. Moreover, this study highlights a co-evolutionary relationship between poxviruses and their hosts, emphasizing the role of host adaptation in shaping virus evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana Águeda-Pinto
- CIBIO/InBio-Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal.,Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Luís Q Alves
- CIIMAR/CIMAR, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Universidade do Porto, Matosinhos, Portugal
| | - Fabiana Neves
- CIBIO/InBio-Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal
| | - Grant McFadden
- Center for Immunotherapy, Vaccines and Virotherapy, The Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States
| | - Bertram L Jacobs
- Center for Immunotherapy, Vaccines and Virotherapy, The Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States.,School of Life Sciences Center for Immunotherapy, Vaccines and Virotherapy, Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States
| | - L Filipe C Castro
- Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.,CIIMAR/CIMAR, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Universidade do Porto, Matosinhos, Portugal
| | - Masmudur M Rahman
- Center for Immunotherapy, Vaccines and Virotherapy, The Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States
| | - Pedro J Esteves
- CIBIO/InBio-Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal.,Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.,CITS-Centro de Investigação em Tecnologias da Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Saúde do Norte (IPSN), Cooperativa de Ensino Superior Politécnico e Universitário (CESPU), Gandra, Portugal
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21
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The Changes in the p53 Protein across the Animal Kingdom Point to Its Involvement in Longevity. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms22168512. [PMID: 34445220 PMCID: PMC8395165 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22168512] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2021] [Revised: 07/29/2021] [Accepted: 07/30/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Recently, the quest for the mythical fountain of youth has produced extensive research programs that aim to extend the healthy lifespan of humans. Despite advances in our understanding of the aging process, the surprisingly extended lifespan and cancer resistance of some animal species remain unexplained. The p53 protein plays a crucial role in tumor suppression, tissue homeostasis, and aging. Long-lived, cancer-free African elephants have 20 copies of the TP53 gene, including 19 retrogenes (38 alleles), which are partially active, whereas humans possess only one copy of TP53 and have an estimated cancer mortality rate of 11–25%. The mechanism through which p53 contributes to the resolution of the Peto’s paradox in Animalia remains vague. Thus, in this work, we took advantage of the available datasets and inspected the p53 amino acid sequence of phylogenetically related organisms that show variations in their lifespans. We discovered new correlations between specific amino acid deviations in p53 and the lifespans across different animal species. We found that species with extended lifespans have certain characteristic amino acid substitutions in the p53 DNA-binding domain that alter its function, as depicted from the Phenotypic Annotation of p53 Mutations, using the PROVEAN tool or SWISS-MODEL workflow. In addition, the loop 2 region of the human p53 DNA-binding domain was identified as the longest region that was associated with longevity. The 3D model revealed variations in the loop 2 structure in long-lived species when compared with human p53. Our findings show a direct association between specific amino acid residues in p53 protein, changes in p53 functionality, and the extended animal lifespan, and further highlight the importance of p53 protein in aging.
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22
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Independent duplications of the Golgi phosphoprotein 3 oncogene in birds. Sci Rep 2021; 11:12483. [PMID: 34127736 PMCID: PMC8203631 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-91909-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2021] [Accepted: 06/02/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Golgi phosphoprotein 3 (GOLPH3) was the first reported oncoprotein of the Golgi apparatus. It was identified as an evolutionarily conserved protein upon its discovery about 20 years ago, but its function remains puzzling in normal and cancer cells. The GOLPH3 gene is part of a group of genes that also includes the GOLPH3L gene. Because cancer has deep roots in multicellular evolution, studying the evolution of the GOLPH3 gene family in non-model species represents an opportunity to identify new model systems that could help better understand the biology behind this group of genes. The main goal of this study is to explore the evolution of the GOLPH3 gene family in birds as a starting point to understand the evolutionary history of this oncoprotein. We identified a repertoire of three GOLPH3 genes in birds. We found duplicated copies of the GOLPH3 gene in all main groups of birds other than paleognaths, and a single copy of the GOLPH3L gene. We suggest there were at least three independent origins for GOLPH3 duplicates. Amino acid divergence estimates show that most of the variation is located in the N-terminal region of the protein. Our transcript abundance estimations show that one paralog is highly and ubiquitously expressed, and the others were variable. Our results are an example of the significance of understanding the evolution of the GOLPH3 gene family, especially for unraveling its structural and functional attributes.
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Lagunas-Rangel FA. Deciphering the whale's secrets to have a long life. Exp Gerontol 2021; 151:111425. [PMID: 34051285 DOI: 10.1016/j.exger.2021.111425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2021] [Revised: 05/22/2021] [Accepted: 05/24/2021] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
Whales are marine creatures known for their enormous size and that live in all the oceans on earth. One of the oldest known organisms is bowhead whales, which can survive up to 200 years, and similarly, other species of whales have shown a remarkable long lifespan. In addition to this, whales are highly resistant to cancer, a disease that is strongly related to aging and the accumulation of damage over time. These two characteristics make whales an interesting model to study and that can provide us with a track both to delay aging and to avoid pathologies associated with it, such as cancer. In the present work, we try to analyze different aspects of whales such as metabolism, hematological and biochemical characteristics, and properties of their genome and transcriptome in order to elucidate possible molecular mechanisms that evolution has provided to these aquatic mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francisco Alejandro Lagunas-Rangel
- Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV), Mexico City, Mexico; Department of Neuroscience, Functional Pharmacology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
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