AltTrans: Transcript pattern variants annotated for both alternative splicing and alternative polyadenylation

BACKGROUND: The three major mechanisms that regulate transcript formation involve the selection of alternative sites for transcription start (TS), splicing, and polyadenylation. Currently there are efforts that collect data & annotation individually for each of these variants. It is important to take an integrated view of these data sets and to derive a data set of alternate transcripts along with consolidated annotation. We have been developing in the past computational pipelines that generate value-added data at genome-scale on individual variant types; these include AltSplice on splicing and AltPAS on polyadenylation. We now extend these pipelines and integrate the resultant data sets to facilitate an integrated view of the contributions from splicing and polyadenylation in the formation of transcript variants. DESCRIPTION: The AltSplice pipeline examines gene-transcript alignments and delineates alternative splice events and splice patterns; this pipeline is extended as AltTrans to delineate isoform transcript patterns for each of which both introns/exons and 'terminating' polyA site are delineated; EST/mRNA sequences that qualify the transcript pattern confirm both the underlying splicing and polyadenylation. The AltPAS pipeline examines gene-transcript alignments and delineates all potential polyA sites irrespective of underlying splicing patterns. Resultant polyA sites from both AltTrans and AltPAS are merged. The generated database reports data on alternative splicing, alternative polyadenylation and the resultant alternate transcript patterns; the basal data is annotated for various biological features. The data (named as integrated AltTrans data) generated for both the organisms of human and mouse is made available through the Alternate Transcript Diversity web site at . CONCLUSION: The reported data set presents alternate transcript patterns that are annotated for both alternative splicing and alternative polyadenylation. Results based on current transcriptome data indicate that the contribution of alternative splicing is larger than that of alternative polyadenylation

The dynamics of gene expression changes in a mouse model of oral tumorigenesis may help refine prevention and treatment strategies in patients with oral cancer.

A better understanding of the dynamics of molecular changes occurring during the early stages of oral tumorigenesis may help refine prevention and treatment strategies. We generated genome-wide expression profiles of microdissected normal mucosa, hyperplasia, dysplasia and tumors derived from the 4-NQO mouse model of oral tumorigenesis. Genes differentially expressed between tumor and normal mucosa defined the "tumor gene set" (TGS), including 4 non-overlapping gene subsets that characterize the dynamics of gene expression changes through different stages of disease progression. The majority of gene expression changes occurred early or progressively. The relevance of these mouse gene sets to human disease was tested in multiple datasets including the TCGA and the Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer project. The TGS was able to discriminate oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) from normal oral mucosa in 3 independent datasets. The OSCC samples enriched in the mouse TGS displayed high frequency of CASP8 mutations, 11q13.3 amplifications and low frequency of PIK3CA mutations. Early changes observed in the 4-NQO model were associated with a trend toward a shorter oral cancer-free survival in patients with oral preneoplasia that was not seen in multivariate analysis. Progressive changes observed in the 4-NQO model were associated with an increased sensitivity to 4 different MEK inhibitors in a panel of 51 squamous cell carcinoma cell lines of the areodigestive tract. In conclusion, the dynamics of molecular changes in the 4-NQO model reveal that MEK inhibition may be relevant to prevention and treatment of a specific molecularly-defined subgroup of OSCC

Territoire, territorialité et territorialisation des événements médiatiques

National audienceMedia events are an area of major concern for the science of territory, with a combination of empirical, methodological and theoretical fields of research. This paper presents three variations of increasing complexity around the questions of the application of the concepts of “territory”, “territoriality” and “territorialisation” to the description of media events. Each variation is illustrated by recent results from the research project ANR Geomedia on a corpus of international RSS flows produced by newspapers of French, English and Spanish language located in various countries of the world.Les événements médiatiques constituent un objet de recherche empirique, méthodologique et théorique d’un grand intérêt pour la création d’une science des territoires. Cette communication propose trois variations de complexité croissante autour de l’application possible des notions de « territoire », « territorialité » et « territorialisation » à la description des événements médiatiques. Chacune de ces variations est illustrée par des résultats de recherche récents du projet ANR Géomédia, sur la base d’un corpus de flux RSS internationaux de journaux de langues française, anglaise et espagnole localisés dans différents pays du monde

JCO Clin Cancer Inform

PURPOSE: Many institutions throughout the world have launched precision medicine initiatives in oncology, and a large amount of clinical and genomic data is being produced. Although there have been attempts at data sharing with the community, initiatives are still limited. In this context, a French task force composed of Integrated Cancer Research Sites (SIRICs), comprehensive cancer centers from the Unicancer network (one of Europe's largest cancer research organization), and university hospitals launched an initiative to improve and accelerate retrospective and prospective clinical and genomic data sharing in oncology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For 5 years, the OSIRIS group has worked on structuring data and identifying technical solutions for collecting and sharing them. The group used a multidisciplinary approach that included weekly scientific and technical meetings over several months to foster a national consensus on a minimal data set. RESULTS: The resulting OSIRIS set and event-based data model, which is able to capture the disease course, was built with 67 clinical and 65 omics items. The group made it compatible with the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) format to maximize interoperability. The OSIRIS set was reviewed, approved by a National Plan Strategic Committee, and freely released to the community. A proof-of-concept study was carried out to put the OSIRIS set and Common Data Model into practice using a cohort of 300 patients. CONCLUSION: Using a national and bottom-up approach, the OSIRIS group has defined a model including a minimal set of clinical and genomic data that can be used to accelerate data sharing produced in oncology. The model relies on clear and formally defined terminologies and, as such, may also benefit the larger international community

A whole-genome sequence and transcriptome perspective on HER2-positive breast cancers.

HER2-positive breast cancer has long proven to be a clinically distinct class of breast cancers for which several targeted therapies are now available. However, resistance to the treatment associated with specific gene expressions or mutations has been observed, revealing the underlying diversity of these cancers. Therefore, understanding the full extent of the HER2-positive disease heterogeneity still remains challenging. Here we carry out an in-depth genomic characterization of 64 HER2-positive breast tumour genomes that exhibit four subgroups, based on the expression data, with distinctive genomic features in terms of somatic mutations, copy-number changes or structural variations. The results suggest that, despite being clinically defined by a specific gene amplification, HER2-positive tumours melt into the whole luminal-basal breast cancer spectrum rather than standing apart. The results also lead to a refined ERBB2 amplicon of 106 kb and show that several cases of amplifications are compatible with a breakage-fusion-bridge mechanism

A whole-genome sequence and transcriptome perspective on HER2-positive breast cancers

HER2-positive breast cancer has long proven to be a clinically distinct class of breast cancers for which several targeted therapies are now available. However, resistance to the treatment associated with specific gene expressions or mutations has been observed, revealing the underlying diversity of these cancers. Therefore, understanding the full extent of the HER2-positive disease heterogeneity still remains challenging. Here we carry out an in-depth genomic characterization of 64 HER2-positive breast tumour genomes that exhibit four subgroups, based on the expression data, with distinctive genomic features in terms of somatic mutations, copy-number changes or structural variations. The results suggest that, despite being clinically defined by a specific gene amplification, HER2-positive tumours melt into the whole luminal-basal breast cancer spectrum rather than standing apart. The results also lead to a refined ERBB2 amplicon of 106 kb and show that several cases of amplifications are compatible with a breakage-fusion-bridge mechanism

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Aging

International audienceAging applies to the changes in microstructure and properties - mechanical and physical - with time when a material is exposed to high temperatures, high stresses, aggressive chemical environments, and high levels of radiation. The chapter is dedicated to present the microstructure evolution in the bulk, but also at the surface, due to oxidation, of bare and coated (e.g., nickel aluminide, MCrAlY overlay, and γ-γ' coatings) SX superalloys. The isotropic and directional coarsening phenomena are reported at high temperature and their dependence on the loading condition (i.e., uniaxial/multiaxial, tension/compression, creep/fatigue, and isothermal/nonisothermal), the plastic prestraining, and the length scale (micro- vs. meso-scale, viz. dendritic scale) is examined. Furthermore, the phase transformation of coatings due to selective oxidation and interdiffusion with the substrate is presented depending on the thermal conditions (isothermal versus thermal cycling), their chemistry, and that of the substrate. The effects of microstructure evolutions in the bulk and because of the coatings on the mechanical performance - mechanical behavior and lifetime - are discussed. © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Territoire, territorialité et territorialisation des événements médiatiques

National audienceMedia events are an area of major concern for the science of territory, with a combination of empirical, methodological and theoretical fields of research. This paper presents three variations of increasing complexity around the questions of the application of the concepts of “territory”, “territoriality” and “territorialisation” to the description of media events. Each variation is illustrated by recent results from the research project ANR Geomedia on a corpus of international RSS flows produced by newspapers of French, English and Spanish language located in various countries of the world.Les événements médiatiques constituent un objet de recherche empirique, méthodologique et théorique d’un grand intérêt pour la création d’une science des territoires. Cette communication propose trois variations de complexité croissante autour de l’application possible des notions de « territoire », « territorialité » et « territorialisation » à la description des événements médiatiques. Chacune de ces variations est illustrée par des résultats de recherche récents du projet ANR Géomédia, sur la base d’un corpus de flux RSS internationaux de journaux de langues française, anglaise et espagnole localisés dans différents pays du monde