TY  - JOUR
AU  - Papavasiliou, F. Nina
AU  - Shaknovich, Rita
AU  - Tasakis, Rafail Nikolaos
PY  - 2019
DA  - 2019/04/08
TI  - <b>RNA Editors and DNA Mutators: Cancer Heterogeneity Through Sequence Diversification</b>
JO  - OBM Genetics
SP  - 072
VL  - 03
IS  - 02
AB  - Cancer development and progression is strongly associated with somatic mutations. From oncogenic hits that initiate the primary tumor formation till metastasis, the tumor mutational burden (TBM) plays a prominent role in disease progression for the vast majority of cancer types. Heterogeneous mutational loads or genetic heterogeneity not only between individuals, but also between tumor cells, are causal to transcriptomic and proteomic discrepancies and to phenotypic diversity. In addition to mutations, RNA editing enzymes (ADAR and AID/APOBEC family deaminases) catalyze A-to-I and C-to-U base changes within RNA transcripts, increasing informational heterogeneity. Because some of these enzymes have the ability to also mutate DNA, they are considered central drivers of inter-tumor heterogeneity either at the DNA level or at the level of RNA. In this review, we connect genome/transcriptome diversification with tumorigenesis and suggest specific roles for these DNA/RNA deaminases in the context of tumorigenesis both through genome level events (microsatellite instability (MSI), TMB) and through transcriptome level events as these converge into a common sequence diversification strategy.
SN  - 2577-5790
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.genet.1902072
DO  - 10.21926/obm.genet.1902072
ID  - Papavasiliou2019
ER  -