Recurrent R-spondin fusions in colon cancer

Somasekar Seshagiri, Eric W. Stawiski, Steffen Durinck, Zora Modrusan, Elaine E. Storm, Caitlin B. Conboy, Subhra Chaudhuri, Yinghui Guan, Vasantharajan Janakiraman, Bijay S. Jaiswal, Joseph Guillory, Connie Ha, Gerrit J.P. Dijkgraaf, Jeremy Stinson, Florian Gnad, Melanie A. Huntley, Jeremiah D. Degenhardt, Peter M. Haverty, Richard Bourgon, Weiru WangHartmut Koeppen, Robert Gentleman, Timothy K. Starr, Zemin Zhang, David A. Largaespada, Thomas D. Wu, Frederic J. De Sauvage

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

836 Scopus citations

Abstract

Identifying and understanding changes in cancer genomes is essential for the development of targeted therapeutics. Here we analyse systematically more than 70 pairs of primary human colon tumours by applying next-generation sequencing to characterize their exomes, transcriptomes and copy-number alterations. We have identified 36,303 protein-altering somatic changes that include several new recurrent mutations in the Wnt pathway gene TCF7L2, chromatin-remodelling genes such as TET2 and TET3 and receptor tyrosine kinases including ERBB3. Our analysis for significantly mutated cancer genes identified 23 candidates, including the cell cycle checkpoint kinase ATM. Copy-number and RNA-seq data analysis identified amplifications and corresponding overexpression of IGF2 in a subset of colon tumours. Furthermore, using RNA-seq data we identified multiple fusion transcripts including recurrent gene fusions involving R-spondin family members RSPO2 and RSPO3 that together occur in 10% of colon tumours. The RSPO fusions were mutually exclusive with APC mutations, indicating that they probably have a role in the activation of Wnt signalling and tumorigenesis. Consistent with this we show that the RSPO fusion proteins were capable of potentiating Wnt signalling. The R-spondin gene fusions and several other gene mutations identified in this study provide new potential opportunities for therapeutic intervention in colon cancer.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)660-664
Number of pages5
JournalNature
Volume488
Issue number7413
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 30 2012

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge Genentech DNA Sequencing, Oligo, Microarray and gCell laboratories for their help with the project. We thank the Genentech Bioinformatics group for informatics infrastructure support and the Pathology Core Labs for providing histology, immunohistochemistry and tissue-management support. We also thank M. Costa, M. Callow, P. Polakis and the de Sauvage and Seshagiri laboratories for comments and suggestions. Work in the Largaespada laboratory was supported by National Institutes of Health grant R01-CA134759 (to D.A.L.).

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