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Åke Borg

Åke Borg

Principal investigator

Åke Borg

The topography of mutational processes in breast cancer genomes

Author

  • Sandro Morganella
  • Ludmil B. Alexandrov
  • Dominik Glodzik
  • Xueqing Zou
  • Helen Davies
  • Johan Staaf
  • Anieta M. Sieuwerts
  • Arie B. Brinkman
  • Sancha Martin
  • Manasa Ramakrishna
  • Adam Butler
  • Hyung Yong Kim
  • Åke Borg
  • Christos Sotiriou
  • P. Andrew Futreal
  • Peter J. Campbell
  • Paul N. Span
  • Steven Van Laere
  • Sunil R. Lakhani
  • Jorunn E. Eyfjord
  • Alastair M. Thompson
  • Hendrik G. Stunnenberg
  • Marc J. Van De Vijver
  • John W M Martens
  • Anne Lise Børresen-Dale
  • Andrea L. Richardson
  • Gu Kong
  • Gilles Thomas
  • Julian Sale
  • Cristina Rada
  • Michael R. Stratton
  • Ewan Birney
  • Serena Nik-Zainal
Show all

Summary, in English

Somatic mutations in human cancers show unevenness in genomic distribution that correlate with aspects of genome structure and function. These mutations are, however, generated by multiple mutational processes operating through the cellular lineage between the fertilized egg and the cancer cell, each composed of specific DNA damage and repair components and leaving its own characteristic mutational signature on the genome. Using somatic mutation catalogues from 560 breast cancer whole-genome sequences, here we show that each of 12 base substitution, 2 insertion/deletion (indel) and 6 rearrangement mutational signatures present in breast tissue, exhibit distinct relationships with genomic features relating to transcription, DNA replication and chromatin organization. This signature-based approach permits visualization of the genomic distribution of mutational processes associated with APOBEC enzymes, mismatch repair deficiency and homologous recombinational repair deficiency, as well as mutational processes of unknown aetiology. Furthermore, it highlights mechanistic insights including a putative replication-dependent mechanism of APOBEC-related mutagenesis.

Department/s

  • Breastcancer-genetics
  • BioCARE: Biomarkers in Cancer Medicine improving Health Care, Education and Innovation

Publishing year

2016-05-02

Language

English

Publication/Series

Nature Communications

Volume

7

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Topic

  • Cancer and Oncology

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2041-1723