Large-scale phenogenomic analysis of human cancers uncovers frequent alterations affecting SMC5/6 complex components in breast cancer

Cancer cells often experience large-scale alterations in genome architecture because of DNA damage and replication stress. Whether mutations in core regulators of chromosome structure can also lead to cancer-promoting loss in genome stability is not fully understood. To address this question, we conducted a systematic analysis of mutations affecting a global regulator of chromosome biology -the SMC5/6 complex- in cancer genomics cohorts. Analysis of 64 959 cancer samples spanning 144 tissue types and 199 different cancer genome studies revealed that the SMC5/6 complex is frequently altered in breast cancer patients. Patient-derived mutations targeting this complex associate with strong phenotypic outcomes such as loss of ploidy control and reduced overall survival. Remarkably, the phenotypic impact of several patient mutations can be observed in a heterozygous context, hence providing an explanation for a prominent role of SMC5/6 mutations in breast cancer pathogenesis. Overall, our findings suggest that genes encoding global effectors of chromosome architecture can act as key contributors to cancer development in humans.

CellWhere: graphical display of interaction networks organized on subcellular localizations

Given a query list of genes or proteins, CellWhere produces an interactive graphical display that mimics the structure of a cell, showing the local interaction network organized into subcellular locations. This user-friendly tool helps in the formulation of mechanistic hypotheses by enabling the experimental biologist to explore simultaneously two elements of functional context: (i) protein subcellular localization and (ii) protein–protein interactions or gene functional associations. Subcellular localization terms are obtained from public sources (the Gene Ontology and UniProt—together containing several thousand such terms) then mapped onto a smaller number of CellWhere localizations. These localizations include all major cell compartments, but the user may modify the mapping as desired. Protein–protein interaction listings, and their associated evidence strength scores, are obtained from the Mentha interactome server, or power-users may upload a pre-made network produced using some other interactomics tool. The Cytoscape.js JavaScript library is used in producing the graphical display. Importantly, for a protein that has been observed at multiple subcellular locations, users may prioritize the visual display of locations that are of special relevance to their research domain. CellWhere is at http://cellwhere-myology.rhcloud.com.