A national long-read sequencing study on chromosomal rearrangements uncovers hidden complexities.

Clinical genetic laboratories often require a comprehensive analysis of chromosomal rearrangements/structural variants (SVs), from large events like translocations and inversions to supernumerary ring/marker chromosomes and small deletions or duplications. Understanding the complexity of these events and their clinical consequences requires pinpointing breakpoint junctions and resolving the derivative chromosome structure. This task often surpasses the capabilities of short-read sequencing technologies.

Disruption of the TP53 locus in osteosarcoma leads to TP53 promoter gene fusions and restoration of parts of the TP53 signalling pathway.

TP53 is the most frequently mutated gene in human cancer. This gene shows not only loss-of-function mutations but also recurrent missense mutations with gain-of-function activity. We have studied the primary bone malignancy osteosarcoma, which harbours one of the most rearranged genomes of all cancers.

Extended genetic diagnostics for children with profound sensorineural hearing loss by implementing massive parallel sequencing. Diagnostic outcome, family experience and clinical implementation.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate genetic outcomes, analyze the family experience, and describe the process of implementing genetic sequencing for children with profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) at a tertial audiological center in southern Sweden.

Design: This is a prospective pilot study including eleven children with profound bilateral SNHL who underwent cochlear implant surgery. Genetic diagnostic investigation was performed with whole exome sequencing (WES) complemented with XON-array to identify copy number variants, using a manually curated gene panel incorporating 179 genes associated with non-syndromic and syndromic SNHL.

Tissue variations of mosaic genome-wide paternal uniparental disomy and phenotype of multi-syndromal congenital hyperinsulinism.

Mosaic genome-wide paternal uniparental disomy (GW-pUPD) is a rarely recognised disorder. The phenotypic manifestations of multilocus imprinting defects (MLIDs) remain unclear. We report of an apparently non-syndromic infant with severe congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) and diffuse pancreatic labelling by 18F*-DOPA-PET/CT leading to near-total pancreatectomy.

Convergent evolution of 11p allelic loss in multifocal Wilms tumors arising in WT1 mutation carriers.

Wilms tumors in patients with constitutional WT1 mutations are examples of Knudson's tumor suppressor paradigm, with somatic inactivation of the second allele occurring through 11p loss of heterozygosity. The time point of this second hit has remained unknown. We analyzed seven Wilms tumors from two patients with constitutional WT1 mutations by whole exome sequencing and genomic array.

Four evolutionary trajectories underlie genetic intratumoral variation in childhood cancer.

A major challenge to personalized oncology is that driver mutations vary among cancer cells inhabiting the same tumor. Whether this reflects principally disparate patterns of Darwinian evolution in different tumor regions has remained unexplored. We mapped the prevalence of genetically distinct clones over 250 regions in 54 childhood cancers.

PREPL deficiency: delineation of the phenotype and development of a functional blood assay.

PurposePREPL deficiency causes neonatal hypotonia, ptosis, neonatal feeding difficulties, childhood obesity, xerostomia, and growth hormone deficiency. Different recessive contiguous gene deletion syndromes involving PREPL and a variable combination of SLC3A1 (hypotonia-cystinuria syndrome), CAMKMT (atypical hypotonia-cystinuria syndrome), and PPM1B (2p21 deletion syndrome) have been described. In isolated PREPL deficiency, previously described only once, the absence of cystinuria complicates the diagnosis.

Genomic profiling and directed ex vivo drug analysis of an unclassifiable myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasm progressing into acute myeloid leukemia.

Myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms, unclassifiable (MDS/MPN-U) are rare genetically heterogeneous hematologic diseases associated with older age and a poor prognosis. If the disease progresses into acute myeloid leukemia (AML), it is often refractory to treatment. To gain insight into genetic alterations associated with disease progression, whole exome sequencing and single nucleotide polymorphism arrays were used to characterize the bone marrow and blood samples from a 39-year-old woman at MDS/MPN-U diagnosis and at AML progression, in which routine genetic diagnostics had not identified any genetic alterations.

Genetic heterogeneity in rhabdomyosarcoma revealed by SNP array analysis.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children and adolescents. Alveolar (ARMS) and embryonal (ERMS) histologies predominate, but rare cases are classified as spindle cell/sclerosing (SRMS). For treatment stratification, RMS is further subclassified as fusion-positive (FP-RMS) or fusion-negative (FN-RMS), depending on whether a gene fusion involving PAX3 or PAX7 is present or not.

Intratumoral genome diversity parallels progression and predicts outcome in pediatric cancer.

Genetic differences among neoplastic cells within the same tumour have been proposed to drive cancer progression and treatment failure. Whether data on intratumoral diversity can be used to predict clinical outcome remains unclear. We here address this issue by quantifying genetic intratumoral diversity in a set of chemotherapy-treated childhood tumours.

Neuroblastoma patient-derived orthotopic xenografts retain metastatic patterns and geno- and phenotypes of patient tumours.

Neuroblastoma is a childhood tumour with heterogeneous characteristics and children with metastatic disease often have a poor outcome. Here we describe the establishment of neuroblastoma patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) by orthotopic implantation of viably cryopreserved or fresh tumour explants of patients with high risk neuroblastoma into immunodeficient mice. In vivo tumour growth was monitored by magnetic resonance imaging and fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography.

Tiling resolution array CGH and high density expression profiling of urothelial carcinomas delineate genomic amplicons and candidate target genes specific for advanced tumors.

Background: Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is characterized by nonrandom chromosomal aberrations, varying from one or a few changes in early-stage and low-grade tumors, to highly rearranged karyotypes in muscle-invasive lesions. Recent array-CGH analyses have shed further light on the genomic changes underlying the neoplastic development of UC, and have facilitated the molecular delineation amplified and deleted regions to the level of specific candidate genes. In the present investigation we combine detailed genomic information with expression information to identify putative target genes for genomic amplifications.

Characterisation of genomic translocation breakpoints and identification of an alternative TCF3/PBX1 fusion transcript in t(1;19)(q23;p13)-positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemias.

The t(1;19)(q23;p13), one of the most common translocations in childhood and adult acute lymphoblastic leukaemias (ALLs), usually results in fusion of exons 1-16 of TCF3 (previously E2A) and exons 3-9 of PBX1. However, some t(1;19)-positive ALLs are negative for this chimaera. We here report an alternative TCF3/PBX1 transcript, fusing exon 17 of TCF3 with exon 5 of PBX1, in a paediatric t(1;19)-positive ALL.

Distinct mitotic segregation errors mediate chromosomal instability in aggressive urothelial cancers.

Purpose: Chromosomal instability (CIN) is believed to have an important role in the pathogenesis of urothelial cancer (UC). The aim of this study was to evaluate whether disturbances of mitotic segregation contribute to CIN in UC, if these processes have any effect on the course of disease, and how deregulation of these mechanisms affects tumor cell growth.

Experimental Design: We developed molecular cytogenetic methods to classify mitotic segregation abnormalities in a panel of UC cell lines.

Structural and numerical chromosome changes in colon cancer develop through telomere-mediated anaphase bridges, not through mitotic multipolarity.

Telomere dysfunction has been associated with chromosomal instability in colorectal carcinoma, but the consequences of telomere-dependent instability for chromosome integrity and clonal evolution have been little explored. We show here that abnormally short telomeres lead to a wide spectrum of mitotic disturbances in colorectal cancer cell lines, including anaphase bridging, whole-chromosome lagging, and mitotic multipolarity. These abnormalities were found in both the presence and absence of microsatellite instability.

Microarray analyses reveal strong influence of DNA copy number alterations on the transcriptional patterns in pancreatic cancer: implications for the interpretation of genomic amplifications.

DNA copy number alterations are believed to play a major role in the development and progression of human neoplasms. Although most of these genomic imbalances have been associated with dysregulation of individual genes, their large-scale transcriptional consequences remain unclear. Pancreatic carcinomas frequently display gene copy number variation of entire chromosomes as well as of chromosomal subregions.

Genome-wide array-based comparative genomic hybridization reveals multiple amplification targets and novel homozygous deletions in pancreatic carcinoma cell lines.

Pancreatic carcinomas display highly complex chromosomal abnormalities, including many structural and numerical aberrations. There is ample evidence indicating that some of these abnormalities, such as recurrent amplifications and homozygous deletions, contribute to tumorigenesis by altering expression levels of critical oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. To increase the understanding of gene copy number changes in pancreatic carcinomas and to identify key amplification/deletion targets, we applied genome-wide array-based comparative genomic hybridization to 31 pancreatic carcinoma cell lines.

Pancreatic carcinoma cell lines with SMAD4 inactivation show distinct expression responses to TGFB1.

Transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGFB1)-induced gene expression was studied in five pancreatic carcinoma cell lines and one known TGFB1-sensitive cell line (HaCaT) by use of high-density filter-based cDNA microarrays representing over 4,000 human genes. The results indicate a complex cellular response to TGFB1 with 10% of the investigated genes showing altered expression after 3 or 48 hr of TGFB1 exposure. The tumor cell lines displayed a gradually inversed gene expression pattern, which correlated with reduced sensitivity to TGFB1, as compared to the HaCaT cell line.

Detailed genomic mapping and expression analyses of 12p amplifications in pancreatic carcinomas reveal a 3.5-Mb target region for amplification.

Previous cytogenetic and comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) analyses have shown that the gain of chromosome arm 12p is frequent in pancreatic carcinomas. We investigated 15 pancreatic carcinoma cell lines using CGH, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to characterize 12p amplifications in detail. The CGH analysis revealed gains of 12p in four of the cell lines and local amplification within 12p11-12 in six cell lines.