MYBL2 (B-Myb): a central regulator of cell proliferation, cell survival and differentiation involved in tumorigenesis

Limitless cell proliferation, evasion from apoptosis, dedifferentiation, metastatic spread and therapy resistance: all these properties of a cancer cell contribute to its malignant phenotype and affect patient outcome. MYBL2 (alias B-Myb) is a transcription factor of the MYB transcription factor family and a physiological regulator of cell cycle progression, cell survival and cell differentiation. When deregulated in cancer cells, MYBL2 mediates the deregulation of these properties. In fact, MYBL2 is overexpressed and associated with poor patient outcome in numerous cancer entities. MYBL2 and players of its downstream transcriptional network can be used as prognostic and/or predictive biomarkers as well as potential therapeutic targets to offer less toxic and more specific anti-cancer therapies in future. In this review, we summarize current knowledge on the physiological roles of MYBL2 and highlight the impact of its deregulation on cancer initiation and progression

Hidden Markov Model Analysis of Maternal Behavior Patterns in Inbred and Reciprocal Hybrid Mice

Individual variation in maternal care in mammals shows a significant heritable component, with the maternal behavior of daughters resembling that of their mothers. In laboratory mice, genetically distinct inbred strains show stable differences in maternal care during the first postnatal week. Moreover, cross fostering and reciprocal breeding studies demonstrate that differences in maternal care between inbred strains persist in the absence of genetic differences, demonstrating a non-genetic or epigenetic contribution to maternal behavior. In this study we applied a mathematical tool, called hidden Markov model (HMM), to analyze the behavior of female mice in the presence of their young. The frequency of several maternal behaviors in mice has been previously described, including nursing/grooming pups and tending to the nest. However, the ordering, clustering, and transitions between these behaviors have not been systematically described and thus a global description of maternal behavior is lacking. Here we used HMM to describe maternal behavior patterns in two genetically distinct mouse strains, C57BL/6 and BALB/c, and their genetically identical reciprocal hybrid female offspring. HMM analysis is a powerful tool to identify patterns of events that cluster in time and to determine transitions between these clusters, or hidden states. For the HMM analysis we defined seven states: arched-backed nursing, blanket nursing, licking/grooming pups, grooming, activity, eating, and sleeping. By quantifying the frequency, duration, composition, and transition probabilities of these states we were able to describe the pattern of maternal behavior in mouse and identify aspects of these patterns that are under genetic and nongenetic inheritance. Differences in these patterns observed in the experimental groups (inbred and hybrid females) were detected only after the application of HMM analysis whereas classical statistical methods and analyses were not able to highlight them

Cooperation of cancer drivers with regulatory germline variants shapes clinical outcomes

Pediatric malignancies including Ewing sarcoma (EwS) feature a paucity of somatic alterations except for pathognomonic driver-mutations that cannot explain overt variations in clinical outcome. Here, we demonstrate in EwS how cooperation of dominant oncogenes and regulatory germline variants determine tumor growth, patient survival and drug response. Binding of the oncogenic EWSR1-FLI1 fusion transcription factor to a polymorphic enhancerlike DNA element controls expression of the transcription factor MYBL2 mediating these phenotypes. Whole-genome and RNA sequencing reveals that variability at this locus is inherited via the germline and is associated with variable inter-tumoral MYBL2 expression. High MYBL2 levels sensitize EwS cells for inhibition of its upstream activating kinase CDK2 in vitro and in vivo, suggesting MYBL2 as a putative biomarker for anti-CDK2-therapy. Collectively, we establish cooperation of somatic mutations and regulatory germline variants as a major determinant of tumor progression and highlight the importance of integrating the regulatory genome in precision medicine

Low-frequency variation near common germline susceptibility loci are associated with risk of Ewing sarcoma

Background: Ewing sarcoma (EwS) is a rare, aggressive solid tumor of childhood, adolescence and young adulthood associated with pathognomonic EWSR1-ETS fusion oncoproteins altering transcriptional regulation. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 6 common germline susceptibility loci but have not investigated low-frequency inherited variants with minor allele frequencies below 5% due to limited genotyped cases of this rare tumor. Methods We investigated the contribution of rare and low-frequency variation to EwS susceptibility in the largest EwS genome-wide association study to date (733 EwS cases and 1,346 unaffected controls of European ancestry). Results We identified two low-frequency variants, rs112837127 and rs2296730, on chromosome 20 that were associated with EwS risk (OR = 0.186 and 2.038, respectively;P-value < 5x10(-8)) and located near previously reported common susceptibility loci. After adjusting for the most associated common variant at the locus, only rs112837127 remained a statistically significant independent signal (OR = 0.200, P-value = 5.84x10(-8)). Conclusions: These findings suggest rare variation residing on common haplotypes are important contributors to EwS risk. Impact Motivate future targeted sequencing studies for a comprehensive evaluation of low-frequency and rare variation around common EwS susceptibility loci

Amphioxus functional genomics and the origins of vertebrate gene regulation.

Vertebrates have greatly elaborated the basic chordate body plan and evolved highly distinctive genomes that have been sculpted by two whole-genome duplications. Here we sequence the genome of the Mediterranean amphioxus (Branchiostoma lanceolatum) and characterize DNA methylation, chromatin accessibility, histone modifications and transcriptomes across multiple developmental stages and adult tissues to investigate the evolution of the regulation of the chordate genome. Comparisons with vertebrates identify an intermediate stage in the evolution of differentially methylated enhancers, and a high conservation of gene expression and its cis-regulatory logic between amphioxus and vertebrates that occurs maximally at an earlier mid-embryonic phylotypic period. We analyse regulatory evolution after whole-genome duplications, and find that-in vertebrates-over 80% of broadly expressed gene families with multiple paralogues derived from whole-genome duplications have members that restricted their ancestral expression, and underwent specialization rather than subfunctionalization. Counter-intuitively, paralogues that restricted their expression increased the complexity of their regulatory landscapes. These data pave the way for a better understanding of the regulatory principles that underlie key vertebrate innovations

Recherche de nouvelles hormones peptidiques codées par le génome humain

The goal of my thesis was to discover novel peptide hormones (PH) in the human genome. Peptide hormones (PH) are an important class of molecules that are involved in a broad range of normal and pathological physiological processes. PH are small secreted proteins that are processed from larger proteins, called precursors. In the first part of the thesis I introduce hidden Markov models (HMM)-based algorithms that allow for the modelling of those PH precursor sequences. This leads me to derive models of some of their well-known characteristic features, including signal peptides and prohormone convertase cleavage sites. Next, I make use of orthology information and modify the HMM algorithms so that the HMM can incorporate a conservation score that is calculated along protein sequence alignments. I show that this idea brings significant improvements in the quality of predictions and I conclude the chapter by drawing a list of potential candidate peptide hormones that was obtained by running the HMM algorithms on genome-wide protein sequence data. In the second and third part of the thesis I present data on the most interesting candidates that we named "spexin" and "augurin". I show in vitro subcellular localization, secretion and processing of those proteins after transfection of their coding DNA into endocrine cells. I then show mRNA and protein in vivo expression data in the mouse for those two proteins, and present functional data on spexin. I conclude both chapters by making some speculations on the functional significance of those two proteins. In the fourth part of the thesis I present data on the expression, secretion and processing of four extra candidate peptide hormones.Cette thèse porte sur la découverte de gènes humains non caractérisés codant pour des précurseurs à hormones peptidiques. Les hormones peptidiques (PH) ont un rôle important dans la plupart des processus physiologiques du corps humain. Ce sont de petites protéines sécrétées générées après clivage de précurseurs plus larges codés par le génome. Dans la première partie de la thèse, l'on introduit des algorithmes, basés sur les chaînes de Markov cachées (HMM), qui vont nous permettent de modéliser les séquences protéiques des précurseurs à hormones peptidiques. On montre que l'on peut dégager des caractéristiques particulières au niveau de la séquence chez ce groupe de protéines et l'on s'attarde en particulier sur la modélisation de deux signaux toujours présents chez ces protéines, les peptides signaux et les sites de clivage par les prohormones convertases. On présente ensuite des algorithmes qui prennent en compte le degré de conservation des résidus le long d'alignements de protéines orthologues. On montre que ces nouveaux algorithmes améliorent de manière significative les résultats obtenus à l'aide des algorithmes classiques. Enfin, après lancement de l'algorithme sur des données de protéomes, l'on dégage une liste de candidats dont certains ont pu être étudiés au laboratoire. La deuxième et la troisième partie de la thèse présentent les conclusions que l'on peut tirer des données de Western blot relatives aux profils de sécrétion et de découpage (processing) de chacun des deux candidats les plus prometteurs, " spexine " et " augurine ". On présente des données d'expression sur la souris (hybridation in situ, immunohistochimie,...) que l'on a récemment obtenues sur ces nouvelles hormones peptidiques potentielles ainsi que des données fonctionnelles sur la " spexine ". En conclusion, l'on avance des hypothèses quant aux fonctions de ces deux protéines. Si les fonctions de ces nouveaux peptides nous sont encore inconnues, leur expression chez la souris, tant au niveau de l'ARN messager que de la protéine, révèle des pistes qui devraient soulever un intérêt certain chez les spécialistes du domaine des peptides. Enfin, dans la quatrième et dernière partie de la thèse, l'on présente pour quatre autres candidats (dont on n'a pu mener une étude approfondie) des données préliminaires d'expression de gène et de sécrétion in vitro après transfection de l'ADN codant pour ces protéines dans des cellules issues de lignées cellulaires pancréatiques

Searching for novel peptide hormones in the human genome

MONTPELLIER-BU Sciences (341722106) / SudocSudocFranceF