Oncogenic Transformation Drives DNA Methylation Loss and Transcriptional Activation at Transposable Element Loci.

ABSTRACT: Transposable elements (TE) are typically silenced by DNA methylation and repressive histone modifications in differentiated healthy human tissues. However, TE expression increases in a wide range of cancers and is correlated with global hypomethylation of cancer genomes. We assessed expression and DNA methylation of TEs in fibroblast cells that were serially transduced with hTERT, SV40, and HRASR24C to immortalize and then transform them, modeling the different steps of the tumorigenesis process. RNA sequencing and whole-genome bisulfite sequencing were performed at each stage of transformation. TE expression significantly increased as cells progressed through transformation, with the largest increase in expression after the final stage of transformation, consistent with data from human tu

SUBMITTER: Kanholm T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10527578 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature