The genetics of splicing in neuroblastoma #MMPMID25637275
Chen J; Hackett CS; Zhang S; Song YK; Bell RJ; Molinaro AM; Quigley DA; Balmain A; Song JS; Costello JF; Gustafson WC; Dyke TV; Kwok PY; Khan J; Weiss WA
Cancer Discov 2015[Apr]; 5 (4): 380-95 PMID25637275show ga
Regulation of mRNA splicing, a critical and tightly regulated cellular function, underlies the majority of proteomic diversity, and is frequently disrupted in disease. Using an integrative genomics approach, we combined both genome and exon level transcriptome data in two somatic tissues (cerebella and peripheral ganglia) from a transgenic mouse model of neuroblastoma, a tumor that arises from peripheral neural crest. Here we describe splicing quantitative trait loci (sQTL) associated with differential splicing across the genome that we use to identify genes with previously unknown functions within the splicing pathway and to define de novo intronic splicing motifs that influence splicing from hundreds of bases away. Our results show that these splicing motifs represent sites for functional recurrent mutations and highlight novel candidate genes in human cancers, including childhood neuroblastoma.